House of the Brave: Always on the Outside
by islandgirl394
Summary: Louis has always felt like he was different from everyone else. He's always been an outsider, bullied, and treated like a human punching bag. Follow him as he navigates his seven years at Hogwarts and struggles to come to terms with his identity. Part of the House of the Brave series.
1. September Year 1

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 **Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.**

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 _Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 1: September 2015

Louis' legs felt like wobbly spaghetti noodles as his mother led him by the hand through the train station. He couldn't understand why he was still moving, because all he wanted to do was to run straight home and never leave. Even after thousands of assurances from his parents and sisters that he would have a great time at Hogwarts and would make tons of friends, Louis was incredibly nervous. In fact, he was more than nervous. He didn't want to go at all.

Louis' whole life he'd lived with his parents. His mother had never been far, often in the kitchen or in the garden. It had been his mother who had taught him to read and write, to count and to do simple arithmetic. His father had taught him how to swim in the water just outside their beach home, and in the winters when the water was too cold for swimming, his father had taught him to play wizard's chess. Louis' whole life was at Shell Cottage. His cousins – James, Lucy, Albus, Rose… they were his friends, his playmates. His life was good the way it was.

Hogwarts was a mystery, an unknown. Louis had no idea whether he would fit in, whether he would make friends like his sisters had. Louis knew he was much less outgoing than his sisters. Neither of them would have had any problem making friends with complete strangers. For Louis, it felt like an insurmountable obstacle.

"Here we are Louis," Fleur said gently, pulling Louis from his thoughts.

He looked around and took in the sight of the enormous train in front of him, steam spewing out the top. Around him, students and their families milled about, talking, laughing, hugging, and saying their goodbyes. Though Louis had been to the train platform before, to see his sisters off to school, it felt incredibly different this time. This time he wouldn't be standing on the platform with his mother and father watching the train pull away and waving to Victoire and Dominique through the windows. When the train was gone, he wouldn't be turning around and returning to King's Cross. His mother wouldn't take him home and then prepare lunch for the two of them as she always did while his father went to work late. This year, Louis was meant to be on that train. He would be on the other side of the windows with his sisters, waving goodbye to Fleur and Bill.

"Are you ready?" his mother asked when Louis didn't speak for a long time.

" _Maman_ ," Louis said in a small voice. "Are you sure I have to go? Maybe you could homeschool me."

" _Non_ ," Fleur shook her head. "Louis, I know you are scared. But your sisters will be there with you and you know they'll take care of you."

"But I want to be with you," Louis whined.

"Come on Louis, it'll be fun!" Dominique assured him. "All three of us at Hogwarts. All the Delacour-Weasley children together."

"I want to stay with _maman_ ," Louis shook his head. He felt tears behind his eyes and forced them back. He wouldn't cry. His father would not want him to cry. "Why do I have to go away to school."

"It's an important rite of passage," Dominique informed him. "Once you're there I know you'll love it."

"How can you know that?" Louis demanded. "Just because you like Hogwarts doesn't mean I will."

"Everyone likes Hogwarts," Dominique replied. "You'll see."

Louis looked up at his mother and bit his lip. "Do I really have to go?" he asked again.

"Yes," his mother nodded. "Dominique, would you…?"

"I'll watch out for him," Dominique nodded.

Fleur transferred Louis' hand from her grasp to Dominique's.

"Stay with Dominique," Fleur told him. "She'll make sure everything's alright."

Louis closed his eyes and took a deep breath before nodding his head. This was it. There was no getting out of it now. He'd known when they'd gone to Diagon Alley to buy his robes and school supplies that there was no way his parents were considering letting him stay home. When his mother had packed his trunk, the chance of convincing them had shrunk to almost zero. When they'd left the house this morning, he'd known there was next to no chance that his parents would change their mind. And now he knew there was no use trying anymore. It was happening. He was going to Hogwarts.

"I'll see you for Christmas," Fleur said, wrapping Louis in a hug.

"The time will fly by," Dominique assured him. "The first term goes by so much faster than the second term."

"I don't suppose that has anything to do with the first term _actually_ being shorter than the second?" Bill asked jokingly before leaning down to give Louis his own hug.

"Yes, I suppose it does," Dominique replied back, rolling her eyes at her father.

Dominique hugged each of their parents herself before leading Louis towards the train and helping her father to lift their trunks up the stairs.

"Ready?" Dominique asked, still holding Louis' hand.

"Not really," Louis replied honestly.

Dominique squeezed his hand and then let go, nudging him in the direction of the stairs.

Louis took a deep breath and grabbed onto the railing, climbing one stair at a time until he reached the top. Dominique was right behind him and as soon as she reached the top, Louis reached for her hand again. It wasn't his mother's hand, but it would do. He and Dominique waved to their parents one last time, and then Dominique gently nudged Louis to the right.

Louis grabbed his trunk and pushed it in front of him while Dominique dragged hers from behind. As she led him down the corridor, Louis found himself holding onto Dominique's hand a little tighter. Inside each compartment were students of various ages, all appearing to know each other and making a great deal of noise greeting each other. If Hogwarts was going to be this noisy, Louis knew he wasn't going to like it.

Finally, Dominique pulled Louis to a stop and gestured to a compartment with two boys inside. Louis felt the butterflies that had been in his stomach all morning speed up as Dominique slid the compartment door open and propelled Louis inside.

"Hey guys," his sister said. "This is my brother Louis. It's his first day and he's a little nervous."

"Hey man, I remember you," one of the boys said with a smile. "Good to see you."

Louis frowned and then realized he did remember the boy. It was Dominique's friend Miles, who had come for ice cream with them that one time after Dominique's first year.

"I'm Miles, in case you don't remember me," Miles added when Louis only stared at him.

Louis shook his head, embarrassed. "Yeah, I remember you," he nodded.

"And I'm Tom," the other boy said. "We're Domi's friends."

"Hi," Louis said shyly. Both Miles and Tom were two years older than Louis, and Louis didn't have much experience with boys who were older than him. Of all his cousins, he was the oldest boy, the next oldest being James, who was one year younger than him. There were his uncles of course, but adults were different than teenagers.

Dominique began to levitate their trunks up into the luggage racks and Louis stared at her in surprise. Of course, he knew that Dominique must be able to do magic, since she'd spent the past two years learning spells and such at Hogwarts, but he'd never seen her perform magic before. His parents and his aunts and uncles did magic all the time, but it was different when it was his sister.

"Anyone seen Brooke?" Dominique asked.

"Not yet," Tom shook his head. "But she's always running late."

"I'm here!" Brooke cried right then, pulling the compartment door open and shoving her trunk inside for Dominique to levitate up to the luggage rack.

"Hey Brooke," Dominique greeted her friend. Then she placed her hand on Louis' shoulder, causing him to jump a little. "This is my baby brother Louis."

"I'm not a baby," Louis muttered under his breath. He was pretty sure nobody heard him though, because as he did, Brooke was exclaiming.

"Oh! Louis, I've heard so much about you! Aren't you so excited to be finally going to Hogwarts?"

"Not really," Louis shrugged.

"Oh," Brooke frowned. "Well that's – " she looked up at Dominique and something in Dominique's face must have told her to stop.

"Alright Louis," Dominique said then, crouching down. "Now I'm going to give you two choices. You can stay here with me and my friends until we get to Hogwarts, or else we can go for a walk and see if we can find a first year compartment where you can try and make some friends."

Louis bit his lip nervously. Dominique's friends were older than he was, and strangers. But at least here he wasn't completely alone. "I want to stay with you," he admitted.

"Alright," Dominique nodded, taking a seat next to Tom. "You can stay here." She left enough room for Louis to sit between her and the wall while Brooke sat opposite them next to Miles.

"So, how was everyone's summer?"

LlLlLlLlLlL

When the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, Louis' butterflies returned with a fury. The train ride had been alright. He'd mostly just sat and listened to his sister and her friends as they talked about all sorts of things he didn't understand and people he didn't know. But now that they were almost at the castle, he was nervous again.

"Alright," Dominique said once the train had stopped. "Now the first years go up to the castle with Hagrid," she explained. "So you're going to have to go without me."

"I don't want to!" Louis cried. "Can't I go up with you?"

"No," Dominique shook her head. "The third years ride in the carriages. The first years take the boats."

"What about the fifth years?" Louis asked. He meant his other sister, Victoire. Maybe she could take him up to the castle. She was a prefect this year after all.

"Victoire is busy," Dominique said. "She doesn't have time to hold your hand. And besides, fifth years go up in the carriages with the rest of us."

Louis looked out the window with apprehension as he took in all the students in black robes circulating around the platform. "What if I get lost?" he asked.

"You won't get lost, I promise," Dominique said. "Come on."

His sister grabbed his hand and led Louis off the train. Louis went with her obediently, content so long as she wasn't leaving him.

Dominique weaved their way through the crowd of students, pushing past the older students, who were going one way, and leading Louis towards the pack of first years that was congregating on the end of the platform.

"Professor Hagrid?" Dominique called out.

Louis did a double take when he saw the man Dominique was calling for. He was huge – bigger than anyone Louis had ever met. He towered over everyone on the platform.

"Dominique," the large man greeted her. "Good teh see yeh," he said. "I saw that yer signed up fer my class this year."

"That's right," Dominique nodded. "I'm really looking forward to it."

As if only noticing Louis' presence at that moment, Hagrid peered down at him in interest. "And who've we got here?" he asked.

"This is my brother, Louis," Dominique said. "It's his first year. He's a little nervous, and also quite shy. Would you mind looking out for him while you take them up to the castle."

"I'd be happy teh," Hagrid agreed. He held out his hand for Louis to shake. "Nice teh meet yeh, Louis."

"Nice to meet you," Louis said, his voice shaking as he reached out to shake the man's hand.

"Alright Louis, I have to go now," Dominique said. "But you'll be fine here with Professor Hagrid. Just stick with him and you'll be fine."

"You promise?" Louis asked.

"I promise," Dominique nodded. "And I'll find you later, after the feast."

Louis sucked in a breath and nodded. "Okay," he agreed. Sooner or later he was going to have to do this without Dominique, and he didn't want to whine in front of his fellow first years. "Bye Dominique."

"Bye Louis," Dominique waved as she walked away.

Once she was gone, Louis looked back up at Hagrid warily.

"Guess yer with me, kid," Hagrid said jovially. "Come on yeh lot!" he called out to all the first years. "Follow me teh the boats!"

Sticking right by the professor's side, Louis allowed himself to be led away from the train and his sister and towards the boats and the castle.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Once they reached the Entrance Hall, Hagrid disappeared, leaving all the first years alone in a room.

"Hey," one boy said, walking up to Louis. "I saw you on the platform before with your sister. You were holding her hand."

Louis swallowed, not liking the boy's tone. His mother had instructed him in how to make friends though, so he figured he'd give it a try.

"I'm Louis Weasley," he said, sticking out his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Whatever," the boy said, knocking Louis' hand away. "So what's your deal? Or are you just that big of a baby?"

"I'm not a baby," Louis defended himself.

"Oh really?" the boy asked. "Because it kind of looked like your sister was babysitting you. And then she passed you off to Hagrid as if you couldn't just follow him up to the castle on your own."

"I just didn't want to get lost," Louis explained.

The boy laughed at him and Louis bit his lip.

Before Louis could be mocked further though, Hagrid returned and announced that they were ready for them in the Great Hall. Hurrying to walk next to Hagrid again and keep away from the mean boy, Louis was led out of the room and through a pair of double doors into the biggest room Louis had ever been in yet – the Great Hall.

Louis knew that the four tables belonged to each of the houses, and he knew which were which, so he was easily able to locate the Gryffindor table and his sisters. Dominique was sitting with her friends from the train close to the front of the room, while Victoire sat with Teddy nearer to the back.

Louis waved at each of his sisters, pleased when both met his gaze and waved back. Louis felt comforted, knowing that at least he wasn't completely alone in this large hall. His sisters weren't by his side, but at least they were nearby and could see him.

The first years reached the front of the room and the Headmaster made a few remarks before the sorting began. Louis knew that all he would be required to do was sit with a hat on his head, but he found that as his turn neared, he was more and more nervous about going up there. Not only would he have to sit there and wait for a verdict from a talking hat, but he would be doing it with every eye in the room trained on him. It was a lot of attention that Louis wasn't comfortable with.

Too soon, Louis' name was called. Just like that morning, his legs felt like spaghetti as he forced himself to walk up the steps to the platform and sit down on the stool. Professor Longbottom – who he knew from the few times he'd met him at his Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny's house – slowly lowered the hat onto his head and plunged him into darkness.

"I was wondering if I'd be getting another Weasley this year," the hat said, either in Louis' ear or in his head he wasn't sure. "Of course, Gryffindor is the obvious choice for you lot."

Louis bit his lip. He wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor more than anything, but he wasn't sure he was brave enough. Gryffindor was for people like his father. His father had worked fearlessly as a curse breaker for years, braving booby-traps and facing death on a regular basis. During the second wizarding war, his father had fought twice – both in the battle at Hogwarts in '96 and then again at the Battle of Hogwarts in '97. In fact, just about all his Weasley Aunts and Uncles had fought during the war. Though his mother hadn't gone to Hogwarts, she could have been in Gryffindor with her bravery. She'd even been a champion in the Triwizard tournament back in '94 with his Uncle Harry. If that didn't count as bravery, Louis didn't know what did. But Louis would never do anything like that. Louis didn't have the courage to submit his name to a competition that might threaten his life. Louis couldn't imagine risking being blown up or dropped into a bit of snakes in Egypt or somewhere for his job. And if a third wizarding war were to come about, Louis predicted that he would sooner be found curled up in a ball in the basement rather than shooting spells at the enemy.

"You don't think you belong in Gryffindor," the hat murmured, picking up on Louis' inner thoughts. "You think I ought to just put you in Hufflepuff and be done with it. But you have more courage than you know."

Louis wasn't sure about that assessment either. What did that hat know? It was a hat. How could it know how Louis might react in a hypothetical situation?

"I know that there's a lot that you aren't ready to admit yet, even to yourself," the sorting hat said, as if in reply. "And I know that you're going to need a lot of courage to face it all. And I can see that you will have that courage. Even if it hasn't fully developed yet."

Louis frowned. What wasn't he admitting to himself? What did the hat see that he couldn't?

The hat didn't reply this time, instead screaming the word, "GRYFFINDOR!" out loud so that the whole hall could hear him.

Louis wanted to ask the hat more, find out what it wasn't telling him. Unfortunately, the hat was being lifted off his head and Louis knew that his time with the hat was done.

The Gryffindor table was clapping loudly, and Louis could see both his sisters staring up at him proudly. Slowly, Louis stood up from the stool, testing his legs before he tried to walk. They were wobbly still, but stronger than they had been before. Maybe the hat was right. Maybe Louis was stronger than he knew.

Louis descended to the Gryffindor table and sat down amongst the other first years. Three more students were sorted, and then the feast began. Not bold enough to talk yet, Louis spent the meal listening to his fellow Gryffindors around him discussing various topics and Louis just soaked in the feeling of being at Hogwarts. Though he wasn't yet sure he wouldn't have preferred homeschooling, he could see why his parents had insisted that he come here. There was something about Hogwarts – something so different from his experience at home. Louis couldn't put his finger on what it was, but he knew it was something special

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next day was Louis' first day of classes. He still didn't really know any of the other students, and he kept mostly to himself. At breakfast, he sat with Dominique and her friends, not confident enough to choose one of the groups of first years to eat with. In his classes, he sat on the edge of the room and kept his head down, doing his work and listening to his professors. When classes were over, he first went to the library and found an empty table where he could complete his homework. Then he returned to the common room and occupied himself by reading ahead in his history of magic textbook.

Dominique encouraged Louis to go up to the other first years and introduce himself, but the longer Louis didn't do it, the scarier the prospect became. By the next day, Louis still hadn't even introduced himself to his dorm mates, instead keeping to himself and staying quiet in the dorm. He sat alone again in all his classes, and after completing his homework, sought out Victoire in the common room and spent some time with her.

"Don't you think you should try to make some friends?" Victoire asked when Louis joined her.

"That's what Dominique said," Louis muttered. "But it's not as easy as it seems."

"I could help you," Victoire offered.

Louis remembered the boy from that first day, right before the sorting, who'd made fun of him for holding Dominique's hand. He'd later learned the boy's name was David Flint, when he'd been sorted into Slytherin. "No," Louis shook his head. "If I do make friends, I need to do it on my own."

Thursday night was the first years' first astronomy class. Louis was skeptical, because the class took place at midnight, which was way past his bedtime. Of course, Louis realized that now that he was at Hogwarts, he no longer had an actual bedtime, only a curfew, though he'd continued to adhere to the time that his mother had set for him when he'd turned eleven.

Since the other first years elected to stay up until astronomy class, instead of going to bed first and then waking up just before class was to start, Louis decided to do the same. By eleven thirty, when it was time to start making his way to class, Louis was exhausted and already regretted his decision. At least if he'd slept a few hours, he'd be more alert. As it was, Louis wasn't sure he was going to be able to make it through the entire lesson.

Louis found the astronomy tower easily enough. There were tons of other first years all making their way in the same direction, so Louis only had to follow them. He ascended the stairs to the tower, finding himself out of breath even before he reached the top. By the time he competed the climb, Louis knew for sure that he couldn't forgo sleep before this class ever again.

The classroom was circular and was open to the sky. Stations for each student were set up all around the room, with the teacher's desk in the center. Louis chose a workstation and started spreading out his things – some parchment with a quill and some ink, his astronomy textbook, and his brand-new telescope.

Professor Brunwell was already there, in the middle of the room, sorting through some papers. Louis waited patiently until everyone was situated and then the professor began the class.

"Welcome to Astronomy," Professor Brunwell declared. He went on to give a brief introduction to the course and explained that because they only met once a week, each lesson was going to be very important and there would be lots of homework as well.

Once he'd finished presenting the course, as all the Professors Louis had had so far had done, Professor Brunwell jumped right into the course. The first thing to do was to teach everyone how to put together their telescopes. Professor Brunwell demonstrated with his own, and then the students were left to try for themselves, while the Professor circulated and helped where needed.

Louis took his time assembling the telescope. He didn't rush like many of the students around him, and as a result he didn't make any mistakes and quickly had his telescope completely assembled and pointing up at the stars.

"Very good Mr. Weasley," Professor Brunwell said as he passed by. Why don't you take a look at the skies, get a feel for what we'll be studying in this course."

Louis did as instructed and bent his knees so that his eye would line up with the eyepiece in the telescope. He leaned forward and closed his other eye so that he would be able to focus on what he was seeing through his telescope.

The telescope was pointing at a grouping of stars. Slowly moving the telescope around on the rotating stand, Louis looked around at the rest of the sky, in awe. Whenever he looked up at the sky with his eyes, he could see small white specks against a black backdrop. With the telescope, he was seeing all sorts of colors – pink, blue, green, orange… And when he looked up with his eyes, he couldn't make out what was a star and what wasn't, but with the telescope, he could see things of different sizes, and he could even make out something that looked like it might be a planet. It was larger than the surrounding stars and it had a striped pattern on it.

It was all so amazing. Louis had always seen the sky as boring – just black filled with dots. But through the telescope, Louis could experience the beauty of the skies – of space – as if he was right up there with it all.

Suddenly, Louis was wide awake. His lack of sleep didn't matter anymore as he continued playing with his telescope, adjusting various knobs and rotating pieces to get clearer pictures of what he was seeing. Had Louis had found it – that thing that his family had assured him he would find. They'd thought he would find it in friends, in his social life. But instead Louis had found it here. He'd found the thing that made him want to stay at Hogwarts. It was this. Astronomy. In that moment, Louis Weasley knew it without a doubt. He was going to become an Astronomer.


	2. October Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 2: October 2015

"Astronomy club," Louis read to himself quietly.

After being at Hogwarts for just over a month, both Dominique and Victoire had agreed that it was time for Louis to step out of his comfort zone and find some people his own age to hang out with. Ever since arriving at Hogwarts, Louis had either spent his time alone or with one of his sisters and their friends. Mostly Dominique, because Victoire was very busy as a prefect, and Louis didn't really like his oldest sister's friend Brianna.

Dominique had suggested that Louis try joining a club as a way of meeting new people. It would be less intimidating than going up to someone at random and introducing himself – something that Louis should have done back at the beginning of September and had now put off doing too long. First year cliques were forming, and Louis wasn't part of any of them. So Louis had reluctantly agreed to at least take a look at the list of clubs on the notice board in the common room.

According to the notice, the Astronomy club was having it's first open meeting that evening. Open meaning that new students were welcome to join.

"You should go," Dominique said, sneaking up behind Louis. "It'll be good for you."

"But it's probably going to be really awkward, going alone," Louis protested. "How will I know who to sit with, or what if they want me to say something?"

"They're not going to try to make you uncomfortable," Dominique assured Louis. "They'll probably have you say your name or something. Maybe give a brief introduction."

"Will you come with me?" Louis asked.

"Trust me," Dominique said. "You do not want your big sister taking you to your first club meeting. It'll only alienate you from the other students and that is the complete opposite of why you're joining."

Louis sighed. "Alright, I'll go alone."

"Do you need me to walk you to the door?" Dominique asked.

Louis shook his head. "No," he said, breathing a deep breath. "I have to do things on my own at some point."

LlLlLlLlLlL

The meeting was scheduled for immediately after Louis' final class. So as soon as Professor Tonks dismissed the first years, Louis began to make his way up to the seventh floor, to the room where the astronomy club met.

It was a classroom right next to the astronomy tower. Louis figured this was so that they could go up to the astronomy tower at times, either for equipment or to look up at the sky. Briefly, Louis wondered what an astronomy club might actually do – but he didn't dwell on that because at the moment, he needed to work up the courage to go inside.

"Hey man," an older boy – maybe sixth or seventh year – said, walking up to Louis from behind. "You coming to the astronomy club meeting?"

"I – uh… yeah," Louis stammered, turning red in embarrassment of his ineloquence.

"Well come on in," the boy said, opening the door and ushering Louis inside.

Louis had no choice. He let the boy lead him in and then heard the door shut behind him.

The room was a lot like most of Louis' classrooms, except that the desks had all been pushed back against the wall and a circle of chairs sat in the middle of the room. There were two older students – a boy and a girl – at the front of the room, standing in front of a large object that was covered with a sheet. In the chairs were a few students, sitting together and talking – they all seemed to know each other.

"Well go ahead and take a seat," the boy who had come in with Louis said. "The meeting will be starting any minute."

The boy then went over to the other two older students and joined in their conversation about the large sheet-covered object. Louis took a look at the circle of chairs and chose one that wasn't next to anyone, deciding that it would be better for someone to sit next to him than for him to sit next to someone else.

A few more people trickled into the room, and then one boy entered that Louis recognized. It was Justin Spinnet, one of Louis' dorm mates. Upon seeing Louis, Justin waved, and Louis nervously waved back. Then Justin walked over and sat down next to Louis.

"So you're thinking about the astronomy club as well?" Justin asked.

"Yeah," Louis nodded, his heart pounding as he desperately tried to seem casual. "I suppose you are as well?"

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "Thought it could be something fun to do."

"Astronomy seems like a very interesting subject," Louis agreed, making sure to mask his high appreciation of the subject like his sisters had instructed. He wasn't supposed to come off too nerdy, they had told him.

Justin nodded. "I heard that last year the astronomy club started working on building this huge telescope. It's supposed to be a hundred times better than the ones we use in class."

"Do you suppose that's what's under the sheet?" Louis wondered.

Justin shrugged. "Maybe," he nodded.

Justin and Louis didn't get the chance to finish their conversation, as the three older students came over and took seats in the circle and began the meeting.

"Welcome to the Astronomy club," the girl greeted them all. "My name is Melody Wellman and I'm the president of this club. I'm a seventh year Ravenclaw, currently studying with the hope of being accepted into the Magical Astronomy Institution internship program after graduation."

Louis was impressed. The Magical Astronomy Institution was very exclusive and accepted applicants from all over the magical world. If Melody thought she had a shot at getting an internship, she must be pretty good at Astronomy.

"Since we have some new faces, how about we all go around and say a little bit about ourselves?" she suggested. "Caleb?" she gestured to the boy on her right, the one who had come in with Louis.

"Alright, well my name is Caleb," the boy said. "I'm also a seventh year, and I'm in Hufflepuff. I'm the vice-president of the astronomy club, and though I'm not expecting to be accepted into a prestigious internship like Melody, I am hoping to pursue a career in astronomy. Oh, and I'm also the Keeper for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, but that's just for fun."

Probably why he's not trying to get into the MAI, Louis thought to himself. He probably loses a lot of time practicing Quidditch that he could be spending doing astronomy related things.

The next student introduced herself as Dorothy Alderton, a fourth year Ravenclaw. Her favorite subjects were astronomy, transfiguration, and arithmancy. The girl next to her was Kelsey Olsen, a fourth year Gryffindor interested in astronomy, ancient runes, and history of magic.

Next was Louis' turn. Nervously, he stood, just as the others had been doing, and introduced himself.

"My name is Louis Weasley," he said nervously. "I'm in my first year. I'm a Gryffindor. And… well I know I haven't been here too long and probably don't know much about astronomy yet, but I think I want to pursue a career in astronomy."

Melody thanked Louis and then it was Justin's turn.

"Hey everyone, I'm Justin Spinnet," Justin introduced himself. "I'm also a first year Gryffindor. I don't know what I want to do as a career quite yet, but I'm definitely interested in astronomy and I think telescopes are super cool."

Though Justin didn't seem as committed to astronomy as the older students or Louis, the others seemed content with his introduction and the next person stood to take his turn.

"I'm Greg Lipson," he introduced himself. "I'm a fifth year Slytherin. I'm probably not going to pursue astronomy as a career, but I'll definitely continue it at NEWT level next year."

The next student was Arnold Rosen, also a fifth year Slytherin, who agreed with Greg that astronomy was worth taking as a class, but not pursuing as a career.

Trent Mitchell was a third year Ravenclaw who was hoping that once he reached seventh year, he also would be able to apply for an internship at MAI like Melody. Makayla Higgins was a second year Hufflepuff who'd enjoyed astronomy last year and thought the astronomy club seemed like a cool way to learn more about it. She was the only other new person in the room besides Louis and Justin.

Abby Reed was a second year Slytherin who'd joined last year as a first year and had enjoyed the astronomy club and wanted to continue. Finally, Benjamin Pullman, who was sitting on Melody's left introduced himself as a sixth year Ravenclaw and the official project manager of the club. While Melody and Caleb were responsible for the administrative parts of the club, Ben was directly responsible for the physical material of whatever project the club was working on.

"Super," Melody smiled once everyone had taken their turn. "Well now that we've all gotten to know each other, let me tell you all a bit about what we do here, for those of you who are new. Since we are the astronomy club, you won't be surprised to learn that we are interested in astronomy. Specifically, last year we began a project to build a telescope that we hope will be able to see further into space than any other telescope Hogwarts has seen before."

As she said this, Ben stood and walked over to the large sheet-covered object. He levitated it into the center of the circle and Melody removed the sheet.

As Louis had predicted, the large object under the sheet was indeed the partially constructed telescope.

"Now this club's main goal this year will be to complete the telescope," Melody said. "Ben has assured me that we should be able to complete it before the end of the year, and maybe even present it to the school before everyone goes home for the summer."

"Besides the telescope project," Caleb continued, "this club also interests itself in special celestial events. On nights when something particularly interesting may be happening, Professor Brunwell gives us special permission to use the astronomy tower after curfew so that we can observe it."

"Astronomy club is a place to enhance your knowledge of astronomy in a fun, casual way," Melody continued. "Here there's no pressure to get good grades or write complicated papers. We want this club to be about making astronomy fun. And of course, being a part of this club means that you will receive extra credit with Professor Brunwell."

Louis turned to Justin in surprise.

"Did you know that?" Louis asked.

Justin shook his head. "Nope," he admitted. "But if I was having doubts about staying, I definitely don't anymore."

For the rest of the meeting, the older students – what they referred to themselves as the Astronomy Club Leadership – showed the new students the parts of the telescope that they had already built and explained where they wanted to go from there. When the meeting was over and everyone headed down to the Great Hall for dinner, Louis found himself greatly looking forward to the next meeting – when he would be paired with one of the older students and given a part of the telescope to actually work on.

"Hey," Justin said, catching up with Louis as Louis started to head down to dinner alone. "Wait up!"

Surprised, Louis stopped walking and allowed Justin to catch up.

"Hey," Louis greeted the boy.

"Hey," Justin said. "Thought we might head down together."

"Oh," Louis nodded. "Yeah okay."

As the two boys made their way to the Great Hall, Louis discovered that conversation flowed easily between the two of them. They started by talking about the astronomy club, and then moved to other topics, like their classes, their Professors, their classmates. Louis was surprised to discover that while Justin had been spending time with the other first year Gryffindor boys, he hadn't really become friends with any of them.

When they reached the Great Hall, the boys sat together and continued talking over dinner, later retiring to the common room and mutually agreeing to work on their homework as a pair.

From across the common room, Louis caught sight of Dominique and saw her smiling widely at him. It seemed that Louis had finally made a friend.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next Astronomy club meeting was the following week. During that time, Melody, Caleb, and Ben had checked in with everyone who had attended the club meeting to make sure they wanted to remain in the club and had decided on the pairs they would be assigning. As Louis, Justin, and Makayla were the newest members, they would be paired with the leaders. Makayla was assigned to Melody, Justin to Ben, and Louis to Caleb. Meanwhile, Abby was paired with Greg, Trent with Arnold, and Dorothy and Kelsey were paired together.

"Well it looks like we're going to get to know each other pretty well," Caleb said to Louis once the pairs were made.

"I guess so," Louis agreed shyly. Caleb was much older than Louis, which made Louis a little nervous.

"Well listen, you got lucky being paired with me," Caleb said. "We've got one of the best jobs."

"What's that?" Louis wondered.

"We are going to be working with the mirrors that go inside the telescope," Caleb declared. "You're going to get to learn all about angles and reflection and all of that."

"Sounds like fun," Louis said, genuinely excited. "Where do we start?"

"Well my friend," Caleb said. "As with most projects in this club, we start with research. What do you say we meet in the library after classes tomorrow to start looking into what we're going to need to pull this off?"

"Alright," Louis agreed. "I'll be there."

LlLlLlLlLlL

Over the next few weeks, Louis found his life taking on a new routine. Instead of eating with one of his sisters, he took his meals with Justin, slowly discovering that the two got along even better than they could have originally expected. In classes, Justin and Louis had started sitting next to one another. After classes, Louis and Justin would head to the library, either to meet with Caleb and Ben for astronomy club stuff, or else to work on their homework. Once a week, there was a group-wide meeting to discuss their progress with the telescope project and to discuss anything interesting about astronomy that anyone wanted to bring up.

By the end of the month, Louis and Caleb were ready to order their mirror pieces and have them shipped to the school. Apparently, they had to get approval from their faculty supervisor – Professor Brunwell – before purchasing anything with school money, so Caleb had Louis write a proposal, indicating all the materials they would need for their part of the project, and submit it to his astronomy Professor.

"I see you've joined the astronomy club," Professor Brunwell noted when Louis brought the letter to him in his office.

"Yes," Louis nodded, unsure how he was supposed to answer such a statement.

"I'm glad," Professor Brunwell said. "Even from our first class, I could tell that astronomy would be a subject you'll excel at. The astronomy club will take good care of you."

"I've learned so much about the mirrors inside telescopes," Louis said. "When will we be learning about that in class?"

"Unfortunately, because we have so little time in this class, I'm not able to cover that in my lessons," Professor Brunwell said sadly. "There's barely enough time to teach my classes about the sky, let alone the tool we use to see it. If you're interested in telescopes, then it's a good thing you're in the astronomy club, because you'll learn plenty there that you'll never learn in class."

Louis was glad to have joined the astronomy club. Not only was he learning a ton of interesting stuff about telescopes, about stars and planets, and about space, but he was making friends. Justin was already a good friend, and Caleb was nice too. The new second year girl – Makayla – was friendly as well, and everyone in the club treated Louis with kindness and friendship.

LlLlLlLlLlL

One day, as Louis was heading to the astronomy club room, he found himself crossing paths with David Flint, the Slytherin who'd made fun of him his first day, as well as some other Slytherins. Louis hoped to just pass by them quietly without incident, but apparently they had other ideas.

"Look who we have here!" Flint cried. "It's the baby who can't leave his sister's side."

Louis tried to just walk past the boys, but they spread out to block his path.

"Where are your sisters now, huh kid?" Flint demanded, getting up in Louis' personal space.

Louis shrugged, looking down at the ground. He thought about turning around and leaving, but knew that the boys wouldn't let him do that either.

"Well where are you going then?" Flint demanded.

"I bet he's going to the owlery," one of the other boys spoke mockingly. "Probably going to write a letter to his mommy to say that his sisters left him alone."

Louis silently shook his head.

"What's that?" Flint demanded. "You're not going to the owlery? Then where are you going, little baby?"

"Astronomy club," Louis muttered quietly.

"Sorry," Flint said. "Can't hear you. Better speak up."

Louis repeated himself, only for Flint to laugh loudly.

"Astronomy club?" he cried. "You mean loser club! Why on earth would you join such a lame club, baby?"

Louis shrugged, deciding to go back to keeping silent.

Suddenly, someone came up behind Louis and called out, "Hey!"

Flint looked up and laughed, but Louis was just glad she was there. He hurried over to Victoire stood next to her, taking strength from her presence and the gleaming prefect's badge on the front of her robes.

"Get lost kid," Victoire demanded. "And leave my kid brother out of this."

"Look at this boys," Flint said to his posse. "The baby needs his big sister to fight his battles."

"I mean it," Victoire repeated. "Beat it or I'll give you all detention."

"You can't do that," Flint challenged, taking a step forward.

"Try me," Victoire said, eyes narrowing and voice sharpening.

Worry flashed in Flint's eyes for a moment, and then he went back to being aloof.

"Alright, well we're done here, right boys?" he asked. "Come on, let's get out of here. The baby's not worth our time anyway."

Flint led the other boys past Louis and Victoire and down the corridor. Louis watched until they were out of sight and once they were gone gave Victoire a hug.

"Thanks," he said.

"Hey," Victoire muttered. "Why were they bothering you?"

Louis shrugged. "They think I'm a baby because I've been hanging around with you and Dominique," he said.

Victoire let out a breath of frustration. "Well if they give you any more trouble, just come and tell me," she said. "I'd like nothing more than to give them detention. And I know Teddy would do the same if you went to him."

"Thanks Victoire," Louis smiled.

"Alright, well go on now," Victoire urged her brother. "I know you have an astronomy club meeting, and you don't want to be late."


	3. November Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 3: November 2015

"Pass me that protractor," Caleb requested.

Louis grabbed the measuring instrument and handed it to his astronomy club mentor. "Here you go," he said.

"Alright, and… there," Caleb said, marking down the final measurement. "That should do it."

"What's next?" Louis wondered eagerly. He and Caleb had been working hard to make sure that all their measurements and calculations were perfect before putting anything together for the astronomy club telescope. If their measurements were off by even a fraction of an inch, they would have to take much of the telescope apart and start all over.

"That's it," Caleb declared. "Now we have to wait for Melody and Ben to finish the basic body of the tube before we can think about starting to fasten the mirrors inside it."

"Oh," Louis said, disappointed. "So I guess there's no reason to meet until they finished their parts then, is there?"

"I guess not," Caleb shrugged. "It actually works out well anyway, because Hufflepuff have a Quidditch game coming up, so I should really spend some extra time down at the pitch."

"Yeah," Louis nodded. "I'll see you at the next meeting then."

"See you little buddy," Caleb confirmed, bumping Louis on the shoulder before packing up his things and then leaving the library.

Disappointedly, Louis started to pack up his own things. He'd enjoyed these past weeks of working on the telescope mathematics with Caleb, and he would miss it in the weeks to come while they waited for their turn to come around again. Louis wondered what he would do with his free time. Normally, he spent much of his leisure time with Justin, but Justin would be busy helping Ben with the telescope project, leaving Louis to his own devices.

Louis found his way up to the seventh floor and to Gryffindor Tower and then up to his dorm where he dumped his bag and stretched out on his bed. It was early yet – he hadn't even had dinner – but he was bored. He was up to date on his homework; had written all his essays and completed all his assignments and readings. He supposed he could read ahead again, like he had back in September before joining the astronomy club, but the thought of turning into his cousin Molly crept into his head and he shuddered at the thought.

He wasn't tired, which only made things more difficult. If he were tired, he could simply take a nap. Unfortunately, he was wide awake. Finally, he decided that he might as well take a walk over to the astronomy club room and see how the telescope was looking when all of a sudden, one of his dorm mates burst into the room.

"Louis?" his roommate, Philip Carter, called out.

"What is it?" Louis asked, sitting up to make himself visible.

"Some fourth year chick is down in the common room insisting that she needs to talk to you," Philip shrugged.

"A fourth year girl?" Louis frowned. Victoire was a fifth year and Dominique a third year. Who else would be interested in talking to him?

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Philip asked, shaking his head.

"Well what does she want?" Louis wondered.

"I'm just the messenger," Philip replied. "If you want to know more, you'll have to ask her yourself."

Curious, Louis got up and pushed his way past Philip and down the stairs to the common room, where he discovered that the fourth year girl who was looking for him was Kelsey Olsen from astronomy club.

"Oh, hey Kelsey," Louis said. "What did you need me for?"

"I think it's best if you just come with me," Kelsey said, gesturing for Louis to follow her out into the common room.

"Is this about astronomy club?" Louis asked, unable to imagine any other reason the girl would have need of him. "Is there a meeting I didn't know about?"

"It's sort of an impromptu meeting," Kelsey explained. "Come on, you'll see when we get there."

There was something off about Kelsey's tone that made Louis wonder if something was wrong.

"Should I be worried?" he asked.

Kelsey hesitated. "Maybe," she finally said. "But then I think you'd already know that if it were the case."

This only served to confused Louis more, but Kelsey refused to speak any more on the subject until the reached the astronomy club meeting room.

Kelsey indicated that Louis should go in first, which he did. Once he passed through the door, he found himself faced with a roomful of very sour-faced clubmates and an even more sour-faced Professor Brunwell.

"What's going on?" Louis frowned, even more confused. He looked around the room, noticing almost immediately that something was missing. "Where's the telescope? Did someone take it up to the astronomy classroom? I thought it wasn't ready to use yet. Caleb and I certainly haven't put in the mirrors yet, so I can't imagine it would be functional."

"Why don't you take a seat, Louis," Professor Brunwell said.

The chairs weren't arranged in a circle this time, but rather in three rows of four, all facing the front where Professor Brunwell stood with Melody Wellman, the club president.

Now feeling complete bewilderment, Louis did as instructed and took a seat next to Justin, whose face was as morose as the rest of the club members.

"Justin," Louis whispered under his breath. "What's going on?"

Justin leaned closer to whisper back. "Someone stole the telescope."

"Someone did what?" Louis gasped.

Justin didn't have time to answer, because Professor Brunwell began to speak.

"Now that you're all here, we can address the very serious issue that has befallen us," he said. "Somehow, as I'm sure you've noticed, the telescope that you have all been working on has gone missing."

"It's got to be one of the new kids," Melody spoke up. Louis immediately felt his stomach drop out of his chest. He was a suspect? They really thought he'd stolen the telescope?

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Professor Brunwell said. "Mr. Filch and Mr. Clarke are presently doing a full sweep of the castle, with the help of the prefects, in the hopes of locating the telescope."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Arnold muttered from behind Louis and Justin. "The thing's enormous."

"As for the culprit," Professor Brunwell continued. "I hate to accuse anyone in this club, seeing as you are all here due to a love of astronomy. However, the door to this room is kept locked when not in use by club members, making it exceptionally more difficult for someone not in this club to have stolen it."

"But couldn't someone just use an unlocking spell?" Abby pointed out.

"Hogwarts does of course keep doors locked with anti-unlocking spells to keep students out of rooms they shouldn't be going in," Professor Brunwell replied. "Ever since some students found their way inside a room with a three-headed dog back in '92 that is."

"So you're saying it had to be one of us?" Trent demanded.

"I'm saying that as of right now, everyone in this room is a suspect," Professor Brunwell declared.

"Okay, seriously?" Makayla cried. "You're treating this like it's some big crime. It's only a telescope."

"It's not just some telescope!" Melody cried angrily. "This was _our_ telescope. We've spent _months_ working on it. See Professor Brunwell? The new kids don't get it. We've put our blood and sweat into this project, and she calls it _only_ a telescope."

"Thank you Miss Wellman," Professor Brunwell said curtly. "I will take your comments under advisement. As for your comment Miss Higgins, the telescope which the astronomy club has been working on represents over a thousand galleons of school funds. The faculty is taking this very seriously."

"I say we question everyone individually with veritaserum," Melody declared. "It's the only way to find out the truth."

"Melody, why don't you sit down?" Professor Brunwell suggested. "As you very well know, veritaserum is forbidden to be used against students, or against anyone unless they are being questioned in a court of law."

"And this isn't as serious as some of those petty crimes that they try at the Ministry?" Melody demanded.

"Would everyone please wait in the corridor please?" Professor Brunwell requested. "I would like to ask each of you a few questions on your own. _Without_ veritaserum," he added specifically for Melody.

Melody rolled her eyes. "You heard him, everyone out into the corridor," Melody demanded, ushering everyone out of their chairs and towards the door. "Who do you want to question first, Professor Brunwell?"

"Perhaps it would be best if we spoke first," Professor Brunwell said as Louis waited to file out of the room.

"Me?" Melody cried. "You don't mean to say that I'm a suspect too?"

Before Louis could hear Professor Brunwell's response, he was out in the hall and the door was shut behind him. With a sigh, Louis crossed to the other side of the corridor and slid down onto the floor to wait to be called for interrogation.

"We're being treated like criminals!" Makayla exclaimed angrily. "This is completely ridiculous."

"Just sit down and wait your turn, Makayla," Caleb instructed, leaning tiredly against the wall. "It's just a formality, Professor Brunwell has to question each of us if he's going to find out who did this."

"Why don't they call in the Aurors?" Makayla cried sarcastically. "Better yet, the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement!"

"Someone's overreacting," Justin muttered, taking a seat next to Louis.

"Do you blame her?" Louis asked. "I mean, obviously we didn't do it."

"Well…" Justin said slowly. "We know that _we_ didn't do it. But we barely know the others in this hallway. Any of them could have done it."

"But why would they?" Louis demanded. "Steal their own telescope? And for what purpose?"

"Sell it for parts?" Justin suggested.

"I can't imagine they'd be able to manage that. They'd be caught almost immediately," Louis shook his head.

"So it was an outside job," Justin said. "Someone who's not in the club stole it."

"But _why_?" Louis asked, desperate to understand why someone would steal such a big telescope, of all things.

"Maybe someone just really hates the astronomy club," Justin suggested.

"What kind of person puts so much effort into hating the astronomy club?" Louis wondered.

Just then, Teddy appeared from around the corner with a Ravenclaw girl Louis recognized as the Hogwarts Head Girl.

"Teddy, Marina," Caleb said, immediately walking over to join them. "Did they find anything?"

"We should really speak to Professor Brunwell first," the girl, Marina, said.

"Teddy?" Louis called out.

"Louis?" Teddy asked, diverting his attention away from Caleb and turning to his cousin. "Don't tell me you're caught up in this too."

Louis shrugged. "I'm in the astronomy club," he said. "We're all involved now. Did you find the telescope?"

Teddy looked torn over whether to say anything or not, and Louis felt bad for putting his cousin in such a position. He'd already told Caleb he wanted to talk to Professor Brunwell before anything else.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"We did," Teddy nodded, causing everyone to let out a sigh of relief.

"Teddy!" Marina cried angrily.

"We found it. But now we should really talk to Professor Brunwell," Teddy continued.

"He's in there with Melody," Caleb said, gesturing to the closed door of the astronomy club room.

Teddy walked up to the door and knocked three times. "Professor Brunwell? This is Teddy Lupin and Marina Mitchell. We have information about the telescope."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the door opened and Melody emerged into the hallway.

"You can go inside," she said. Her eyes were bloodshot and her voice was raw. Louis wondered what had gone on in there during her questioning. "The rest of you are to wait for Professor Brunwell," she added.

"Mel," Caleb said, walking over and extending his hand to her shoulder.

"No," Melody said, shaking him off and stepping away. "I need to go and lie down."

Melody left then and Teddy and Marina disappeared inside the classroom, leaving the rest of the astronomy club waiting out in the hall once again.

"What's the problem now?" Louis frowned. "If they found the telescope, then shouldn't everything be alright?"

"Well…" Justin hesitated. "Just because they found the telescope doesn't mean they know who took it in the first place."

"But why does it matter, if they found it?" Louis wondered.

Justin shrugged. "Look, I know as much as you do right now," he said. "I don't know why you seem to think I have all the answers."

Teddy and Marina emerged a few minutes later, faces grim.

"Caleb, he'd like to speak to you," Teddy said, holding the door open for Caleb to enter the room and shutting it once he had passed through. "He should be with the rest of you shortly. Marina and I have some business to take care of."

Louis waved goodbye as Teddy and Marina disappeared around the corner once more.

"Well I guess that proves that they're still looking for the culprit," Justin noted. "Or else they'd have let us all go."

The wait was excruciating. Louis was starving and wished he could go down to dinner, but Professor Brunwell had been clear that nobody was to leave until questioned. The astronomy Professor seemed to be questioning the older students first and working his way down to the younger students, which meant that after a while, Justin and Louis were the only ones left waiting in the corridor.

"You can go in, Louis," Makayla said, emerging from the room, having finished her own interrogation.

"Good luck man," Justin said, clapping Louis on the back as he stood.

"What do I need luck for?" Louis frowned.

"I don't know," Justin shrugged. "I just figured… never mind I guess."

Taking a deep breath, Louis walked over to the door and entered the club room, closing the door behind him and slowly walking over to the front desk where Professor Brunwell sat.

"So… am I in trouble?" Louis asked nervously.

Professor Brunwell shook his head. "No Louis, you're not in trouble," he said. "I just have a few questions to ask, that's all."

"Alright," Louis nodded, taking a seat.

"As I'm sure you're aware," Professor Brunwell began, "the telescope has been located."

"Yes," Louis nodded. "Teddy mentioned that."

"What you don't know is that it was found in the dungeons and appears to have undergone some serious damage since it was stolen," Professor Brunwell said.

"Damage?" Louis frowned. "Someone stole it to destroy it?"

Professor Brunwell nodded. "Do you know of anyone who dislikes the astronomy club?"

"Not enough to want to steal a telescope," Louis shook his head.

"What about you?" Professor Brunwell asked. "Has anyone at Hogwarts singled you out in any way? Does anyone dislike you? Have you experienced any bullying or negative comments?"

Louis immediately thought of his run-in with David Flint and his buddies from Slytherin. They didn't seem to like Louis much, and they did know that Louis was in the astronomy club. But would they really go to so much trouble to steal the telescope they were working on?

"I haven't really been here long enough to make any enemies, Professor Brunwell," Louis replied, deciding to forgo mentioning Flint. He didn't want to open a can of worms that didn't need to be opened. More likely if someone was doing this out of hate, it was because of one of the older students, who'd been in the club longer than a month and a half.

"Are you sure?" Professor Brunwell asked. "I hate to be discriminatory, but the telescope was found in the dungeons, so I have to ask… can you think of any Slytherins who might want to hurt either you or another member of the astronomy club?"

Again, Louis replied in the negative.

Professor Brunwell considered Louis for a moment and then dismissed him.

"You may send your friend Justin in," he added as Louis neared the door.

Louis nodded and stepped out into the hallway.

"So?" Justin asked, immediately scrambling to his feet. "What'd he ask you?"

Louis shrugged. "Just a couple questions, that's all," he replied. "Nothing to worry about."

Justin nodded. "I'll meet you down in the Great Hall as soon as I'm done here," he said.

Louis smiled. "Good," he said. "I'm starving."

LlLlLlLlLlL

Justin's interrogation didn't take long. Almost as soon as Louis had started eating, his friend had joined him and was piling his plate high with mashed potatoes and roast beef.

"Did you name anyone?" Justin wondered curiously.

Louis shook his head. "No," he said. "Did you?"

Justin also shook his head. "It wouldn't be about either of us," he said. "It's gotta be about Melody or Caleb or Ben. One of the leaders for sure."

"That's what I thought," Louis nodded. "The telescope is way more important to them than us. Messing it up hurts them more than us."

"I wonder who it could have been," Justin said, turning around and gazing at the Slytherin table.

"Hey," Louis said. "It could have been anyone. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff… even Gryffindor."

"It was found in the _dungeons_ ," Justin stressed. "What do you think that means?"

"It could have been planted," Louis pointed out. "Maybe someone's trying to frame someone else."

"You should be an Auror," Justin said.

Louis laughed at that. "Yeah right," he said. "There's no way."

"Isn't your uncle like, Head of the Auror Department?" Justin asked. "I bet he could get you in."

"Uncle Harry isn't going to do me any favors," Louis replied. "And even if he would, I don't want to be an Auror."

"It's a shame," Justin said. "The world will never know your amazing sleuthing skills."

"Now you're just making fun of me," Louis accused.

"True," Justin admitted, unashamed.

Louis laughed and rolled his eyes at his friend before digging into his own dinner. Whatever had happened, the Professors would figure it out eventually.

LlLlLlLlLlL

It turned out that Louis and Justin were right. A seventh year Slytherin had stolen the telescope after Melody broke up with him out of revenge. Overcome with guilt at being the reason it was destroyed, Melody refused to come to astronomy club meetings, leaving Caleb in charge.

Since the telescope was damaged, all current projects were put on hold while everyone pitched in to repair the damage. According to Ben, almost everything was easily reversible, and they would only have to re-order a few parts that were beyond repair.

"Melody should really forgive herself and come back," Louis commented one day while he and Caleb were working on mending parts of the base that seemed to have been bashed in with some kind of heavy metal object. "It's not her fault, what happened."

"I've been trying to convince her of that," Caleb nodded. "But she's still pretty upset. She just needs some time and eventually she'll get over it."

Louis nodded. "We should try and get the telescope all fixed up before she comes back," he said. "She won't want to see the damage. It'll make her feel worse."

"Then you'd better stop talking about it and get in here and help me," Caleb insisted. "Hold this piece while I mend it."

Louis did as he was told, taking hold of the piece in question and waiting while Caleb waved his wand and uttered the mending spell. Slowly, the metal bent back into shape, and as it did, Louis let go and allowed it to settle into it's correct position.

"There," Caleb said. "Only a thousand more of these to go."


	4. December Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 4: December 2015

Before Louis knew it, his first term was over and he was home for the Christmas holidays. Though he was overjoyed to see his parents, he also felt a twinge of sadness when the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Hogsmeade station. He was going to miss the castle. After all his doubts and nervousness about going to Hogwarts, he'd grown to like it. He had his friend Justin, he had the astronomy club, and he had his sisters in case he ever felt homesick.

Nonetheless, being back in his old room felt good. Especially since he didn't have to share the room with four other boys. Louis liked to keep his room tidy, but with four room mates, it was almost impossible to keep the dorm clean. There were always dirty clothes lying around on the floor, even in Louis' part of the room, despite the fact that he kept his clothes either in his trunk or in the laundry. And for some reason, the boys' dorm always smelled like there was some kind of rotting food lying around somewhere, though Louis had never been able to identify the source of the smell. And the other boys didn't seem to care.

What Louis was most looking forward to though, was Christmas Eve at the Burrow. Over the past months at Hogwarts, Louis had had his sisters with him, and he'd been in contact with his parents. What he'd really missed since he'd left home was spending time with his cousins. Ever since he was little, Louis had spent much of his time at the houses of his various aunts and uncles. Particularly, he missed James and Lucy – the two cousins with whom he was closest in age, besides Molly who wasn't much fun anyway (they were both a year younger than Louis).

As soon as he and his family arrived at the Burrow, Louis hurried upstairs to find his cousins.

"Louis!" Lucy exclaimed, running at Louis and giving him a hug. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too Luce," Louis said. "You too James."

"You've got to tell us everything," James insisted. "What's Hogwarts like?"

"Don't you pretty much know?" Louis asked. "I mean, Teddy's been going to Hogwarts for years and he practically lives with you."

"Yeah, but he's a seventh year," James pointed out. "He's old. I want to hear from you."

"Did you just call me old?" Teddy asked, coming down from upstairs.

"Definitely not," James shook his head seriously. "I would never call you old. Wise certainly. Mature obviously."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, ruffling James' hair. "Louis, good to see you. Any idea where your sister is?"

"Victoire?" Louis guessed. "Still downstairs, I think."

"Thanks buddy," Teddy said, patting Louis on the shoulder before heading downstairs.

"Hey!" Molly called out after Teddy. "Are you coming back? Should we wait for you to play?"

"I think we're going to sit this one out, Molls," Teddy called back.

Louis heard Molly harrumph. He laughed. She hated nicknames.

"Come on, let's go upstairs," Lucy suggested then. "Rose and Hugo and Fred and Roxanne aren't here yet, and we can't start hide-and-seek without them, so we can talk."

"Can I come with you?" Albus asked, appearing at James' side.

"No," James said, shaking his little brother off. "Go play with Lily."

Albus wrinkled his nose. "I don't want to play with Lily," he complained.

"Then go play with Dominique," James amended. "Just don't follow us."

The three cousins made their way up to the fifth floor and went into Uncle Ron's old room, Lucy and James sitting down on the bed and Louis pulling up a chair.

"So?" James prompted when Louis didn't speak right away. "Tell us everything."

Louis frowned. "Well… I joined the astronomy club," he said.

James gave his cousin a blank stare. "The astronomy club?" he repeated. "Seriously?"

"Hey!" Louis cried defensively. "It's a lot cooler than you think!"

"What do you do exactly?" Lucy wondered.

Louis smiled. Surely this would sound cool to them. "Well," he said. "Right now, we're working on building this huge telescope. It's going to be able to see things normal telescopes can't. It'll be the strongest one Hogwarts has ever had."

"So… let me get this straight," James frowned. "You're attending Hogwarts – a magical school full of magical things do to. You could be playing Quidditch, or playing exploding snap with your friends. But instead you're building a telescope?"

"Well, yeah," Louis replied.

James gave Louis a look and then exchanged one with Lucy. Then he sighed.

"Lame," he said while Lucy nodded.

Louis was baffled. How could his cousins think he was lame? Astronomy club was fun! He was learning way more about astronomy and telescopes than he ever would in astronomy class. And as a member of the club, he'd be among the first students to get to try out the telescope once it's built. Maybe even before some of the faculty members.

Before long, Rose, Hugo, Fred, and Roxanne had arrived and Molly made the announcement that hide-and-seek was starting. As usual, nobody wanted to be the first counter, so Molly nominated Lucy.

"Ugh," Lucy groaned. "You always pick me."

"You didn't count last year," Molly pointed out.

Lucy didn't bother to argue with her older sister, and instead covered her eyes and began counting. Louis immediately made for the stairs leading down and ran to the second floor, running into his Uncle George's old room. He was still small enough to hide under the bed, and this was his favorite bed to hide underneath. Quietly, he slipped under and pulled the covers down so that he wouldn't be immediately visible to Lucy when she came seeking.

Just as Louis finished safely hiding himself, someone else came bounding into the room.

"Who's out there?" Louis hissed.

"Lily," his youngest cousin replied.

"Well go away," Louis demanded. "I'm hiding in here."

"Two people can hide in the same room," Lily said. Louis could practically hear the sass dripping from her voice. She was much too young for sass, Louis mused.

"Fine, well just hide before we're both caught," Louis demanded.

He felt Lucy bounce up onto the bed, the springs above him bouncing as she did. Then suddenly the covers that Louis had so carefully positioned were pulled up, leaving Louis completely exposed.

"Lily!" Louis cried. "What are you doing?"

"I'm hiding under the covers," Lucy replied.

"Well I was using those," Louis said. "So can I have them back please?"

"Then where am I supposed to go?" Lily asked.

"I don't know," Louis said. "Anywhere else."

"I'm staying here," Lily declared.

Louis groaned. His hiding spot was no good without the covers to block him from sight. Lucy would spot him immediately. He was about to slide out from under the bed to find a new hiding spot when he heard Lucy descending the stairs and knew he was out of luck.

"Don't give my hiding spot away," Louis ordered, pushing himself against the wall as much as he could and trying not to move. Maybe if he was lucky, Lucy would see Lily first and then move on.

Though he could no longer see the door, he knew immediately when Lucy had arrived because the footsteps came to a stop.

"Seriously guys?" Lucy asked. "Louis is that you under there?"

Louis sighed and pushed himself out, bringing with him a cloud of dust.

"Yeah, it's me," he sighed.

"And you thought that was a good hiding spot?" Lucy questioned.

"Well Lily kind of ruined it," Louis replied. "She stole the covers so I couldn't pull them down in front of me.

"Hey!" Lily cried, popping up out of the bundle of covers on top of the bed. "You gave me away. That's not fair, you said I couldn't do that to you."

"She knew you were here already, Lily," Louis shook his head. "It wasn't the most ingenious hiding spot."

"Well she still found you first," Lily declared happily, climbing off the bed. "So I don't have to count anyway."

Louis sighed. "So not fair," he muttered.

Lucy was able to find everyone without much effort. After years of playing this game, the Weasley cousins were having trouble finding creative places to hide. For the most part, they all knew where all the good places were.

Since Louis was found first, he reluctantly covered his eyes and counted out the next round, listening carefully to his cousins' footsteps in the hopes of identifying where they were going. Unfortunately, there were too many of them and his ears weren't strong enough to discern all the different feet and it did little good.

When he finished counting, Louis began to make his rounds, starting on the fourth floor in Uncle Percy's old room and then crossing over to his father's old room, locating Roxanne, Rose, Albus, and James. He found Dominique on the fifth floor in Uncle Ron's old room, and Molly and Fred were both in the attic. Finally, he descended to the second floor to find Lily in the exact same spot on Uncle George's old bed and also found Hugo and Lucy in Aunt Ginny's old room.

They played a few more rounds of hide-and-seek before Grandfather Weasley called up that the family Quidditch game was starting. Louis and his cousins descended to the garden and assembled by the pitch as the adults decided on the teams.

"Louis, you should play," James encouraged his cousin. "You're at Hogwarts now, you've taken flying lessons."

"Only a few," Louis shook his head. "I'm not ready to play a competitive game of Quidditch. Besides, the teams would be uneven if I joined."

"Oh come on Louis, play," Lucy urged him. "It'll be fun!"

"Hey Dad?" James called, without giving Louis the opportunity to say no again. "Louis wants to play."

"Well alright then!" Harry exclaimed. "We've got a new player!" He clapped Louis on the back and led him over to the other adults, standing by the broom shed. "Look who's decided to join us," Harry said.

"Alright Son," Bill said. "Nice to see I've at least got one kid who's interested in the game."

Louis grimaced. He didn't particularly want to play, but now that the adults were so excited, he didn't see that he had a choice. Plus, his father was excited, and he wouldn't want to disappoint him.

"I can sit out," Aunt Angelina volunteered. "Unless you guys want to play with uneven teams?"

"I think I know how to even the teams out," Teddy declared, walking away from the group and taking Victoire aside.

Louis couldn't hear what Teddy and Victoire was saying, but from the looks of it, Teddy was trying to convince Victoire to play, and Victoire was reluctant to agree. Eventually, Teddy returned with Victoire, a victorious smile on his face.

"All solved," Teddy said. "Victoire will make the teams even. Five against five."

"I'll be on Teddy's team," Victoire volunteered.

"I don't think so," Louis' father shook his head. "Louis can be on Teddy's team. Victoire, you'll fly with me."

Victoire pouted and then Teddy whispered something to her that made her smile.

The adults conferred for another few moments before making their final decisions. Louis' team consisted of himself, Teddy, Uncle Ron, Uncle George, and Aunt Ginny. The other team consisted of Victoire, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Harry, Aunt Angelina, and of course his father.

The teams then separated to confer with one another. As a former professional Quidditch player, Aunt Ginny immediately assumed the role of team captain, declaring that Ron would play Keeper and George would play beater, while she, Louis, and Teddy would be the chasers and seekers. Since they were only a team of five, there was only one beater, and the role of seeker wasn't designated to only one player.

Louis was glad he'd been assigned to be a chaser. The pressure of being his team's only keeper or beater would have been too much.

Across the pitch, the other team appeared to have made their decisions as well. Charlie flew up to guard the goalposts and Bill grabbed a beater's bat, leaving Louis to surmise that in terms of chasing and seeking, he was up against Victoire, Aunt Angelina, and Uncle Harry.

Louis chose a broom from those available – there were plenty, though most were old or outdated. He ended up on an older Nimbus model and carefully kicked off from the ground, trying to keep steady as he took his place in the sky.

As usual, Aunt Audrey released the bludger and snitch, while taking the quaffle in her hands and walking into the center of the field. As soon as she released the quaffle she ducked and ran to the sidelines and joined with the cousins and other adults who weren't involved in the making of dinner.

Louis pushed his broom forward in the direction of the quaffle, but Aunt Angelina got to it first, flying past him at lightning speed and going straight for the goalposts. Aunt Ginny tried to stop her, but Aunt Angelina evaded her, throwing the quaffle at the goalposts. Lucky for Louis and his team, Uncle Ron flew in and saved the day, catching the quaffle and then tossing it in Louis' direction.

Panicking, Louis reached out both hands to catch the quaffle. Unfortunately, taking both hands off the broom handle caused Louis to lose his balance and wobble a bit. In his haste to regain his balance, he missed catching the quaffle, watching in dismay as it fell below him and Uncle Harry flew past, scooping it up and making straight for the goalposts. Uncle Ron was distracted, keeping an eye on Louis and his shaky flying and didn't have time to block Uncle Harry's goal. The quaffle sailed through the goalposts and landed on the ground behind, where Aunt Audrey picked it up and returned it to Uncle Ron.

Louis felt himself turn red. If it hadn't been for his wobbly-ness, he'd have caught the quaffle and Uncle Harry wouldn't have made that point. Or at least, Uncle Ron wouldn't have been distracted and would have been able to block it.

Resolving to do better, Louis got a firm grip on his broom and rejoined the game. He wasn't quite as fast as the rest of the adults, but at least he wasn't as bad as Victoire, who was barely keeping up at all.

After about half an hour, Louis still hadn't been able to make any points. Every time he tried, Uncle Charlie blocked it. He saw his father fly over to Uncle Charlie and say something, gesturing in Louis' direction. Louis assumed Bill was telling Charlie to let Louis have a free shot, which Louis didn't appreciate at all. Once Bill had flown away, Louis met Charlie's eye and shook his head, making sure his uncle got the message not to give any points away undeserved.

Just as Louis was preparing to go after the quaffle again, he noticed something shiny only a short distance away from him. Looking around, he surmised that he was the only one who saw it. If he made a break for it, everyone would know what he saw and would either all try to grab it too, or else keep their distances and let Louis win out of pity. Louis didn't like either of those possibilities, so instead, he continued to fly at his usual slow pace, keeping his eyes focused elsewhere than the floating golden ball, while keeping the snitch still in his peripheral vision.

Once he'd drifted close enough, Louis slowly began to reach out his hand, not wanting to frighten the snitch away. If it zoomed across the pitch now, then he'd never catch it. He reached his hand higher, and higher, and then with a grin closed his fist around it, reveling in the feel of the cool metal against his palm.

"I caught the snitch!" Louis cried in victory.

For a moment everyone came to a stop in confusion. The game usually either ended in a mad dash for the snitch, or Grandmother Weasley calling them all in for dinner. The snitch being caught without anyone noticing was unprecedented at the Burrow.

Louis opened his hand to prove that he had indeed caught the ball, and suddenly both teams had flown over to him and were congratulating him, slapping him on the back proudly. The opposing team didn't seem disappointed at all, and Louis knew they were just glad that his first game had been such a success.

Louis touched down on the ground and his cousins surrounded him, all wanting to get a turn to hold the snitch. Louis didn't know what was so special about the snitch – it was the same snitch they always used and nobody had cared about it before. He supposed now that he'd caught it, it was more special or something.

Luckily, dinner was just about ready, so Louis was able to escape the mob that was his family by excusing himself to wash his hands. Back in the kitchen, he volunteered to help his Grandmother to get the bowls of food onto the two tables and then he called everyone else inside.

"That was amazing!" James said, sitting down with Louis at the kids' table. "You should be on the Quidditch team. Forget this astronomy club nonsense."

"I don't know about that," Louis shook his head. "It was a lucky catch. I never would have gotten it if it hadn't been right there. You saw how terrible I flew."

"I saw how terrible your sister flew," Lucy laughed.

"Hey!" Victoire's voice called out from down the table. "I heard that!"

Lucy shut her lips and tried not to smile. "Well it's true," she muttered under her breath so that only James and Louis could hear.

Louis laughed. "Alright, I guess I'm not the worst flier here."

"You'd better watch out for next year though," James warned. "Because as soon as I get to Hogwarts, I'm going to be flying all the time. I'll be unstoppable."

"I look forward to that," Louis laughed. "Though I may not play again next year."

"But you have to!" Lucy cried. "No way will Victoire play again, so you'll have to play to make the teams even with James playing."

"Or you could play," Louis pointed out.

"Me?" Lucy asked in surprise. "Oh, I don't know about that. I'm not much of an athlete."

"I guess we'll see about that," Louis smirked.

"I guess we will," Lucy agreed, taking a bite of turkey. "It won't be long now."


	5. January Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 5: January 2016

Too soon, the Christmas holidays were over. Though Louis had felt a twinge of sadness when he'd left the castle, it was nothing compared to what he felt leaving his family yet again.

"You'll be home for Easter," his mother assured him as he tarried on the platform. "That's not so far away, is it?"

"I guess not," Louis agreed.

Once he was back at Hogwarts though, Louis found it easy to forget missing his parents. He had so much to do, after all. There were classes and studying, not to mention astronomy club. There was so much more to do at Hogwarts than he'd originally thought.

One day, Louis was sitting with Justin in herbology, diligently taking notes based on Professor Longbottom's lecture on spiky bushes. Ever since the beginning of January they'd been learning about spiky bushes, and Louis wondered when they would move on to their next topic. Surprisingly though, Professor Longbottom had something else up his sleeve.

"So far this course has been largely theoretical," Professor Longbottom said after finishing his final thoughts on Spiky Bushes. "Which makes sense, because you all need to know the basics before we can move forward. However, now that we've reached the second term, it's time to actually start working with some of the plants we're going to be talking about. So next class, come prepared to deal with some real live spiky bushes."

Louis swallowed nervously at this prospect. Real live spiky bushes? In the greenhouse? This was going to be a disaster. Sure they all knew the theory, but did that mean he'd be able to dodge the spikes that would likely be shooting out of dozens of spiky bushes around the room? How did Professor Longbottom expect this to end, if not with the whole first year class crammed into the hospital wing while Madam Eldridge removed spikes from them all?

"This is going to be a disaster," Louis muttered to Justin as they gathered up their things after class and began to head up to the seventh floor for an astronomy club meeting. "Are spiky bushes really the best plant to be our first to work with? There's got to be a less dangerous one we could have learned about instead."

"I looked ahead in the textbook and bouncing bulbs are next," Justin commented. "Don't see why we couldn't have started there. They seemed harmless enough."

"It's like Professor Longbottom is trying to get us all injured," Louis said.

"Maybe that's his plan," Justin posited. "Maybe he wants to instill the fear of herbology into us all right from the beginning."

"Or maybe he's weeding out the herbology prodigies from the failures," Louis suggested.

"Either way, I'm going to be prepared," Justin declared. "I'm going to wear as many layers as I can tomorrow. If the spikes can't reach my skin, they can't hurt me."

"You'd have to wear a lot of layers to keep the spikes from spiking you," Louis said. "They're pretty long, and according to Professor Longbottom, the bush ejects them with a great deal of force."

"Even if I have to wear fifteen sweaters, I'm going to be ready," Justin declared.

True to his word, the following day, Justin donned all fifteen of his sweaters under his robes. Louis had to stifle a laugh as he took in his friend's appearance.

"You look ridiculous," Louis said. "Aren't you sweating under there? And the greenhouses will be worse, it's so warm down there."

"I'll be fine," Justin assured Louis, a bead of sweat already dripping down his face. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

Herbology was only their second class of the day, and Louis could help but laugh at Justin as he tried to take notes in history of magic that morning with so many layers of fabric impeding his writing ability. At least it wasn't a particularly important lecture, and soon they were heading down to the greenhouses anyway.

"What are you wearing?" a voice demanded as Louis and Justin approached the doors to the greenhouse. Louis looked around and identified the owner of the voice as David Flint – the Slytherin who really didn't seem to like Louis.

"Clothes," Justin replied, as though this were obvious.

"Don't play dumb with me," Flint said, stepping closer and obstructing Louis and Justin's path so they couldn't get into the classroom. "I can see that much."

"Justin's just trying to protect himself from the spiky bushes," Louis explained, trying to peek over Flint's shoulder in the hopes of catching his Professor's eye. Flint made him nervous and Louis didn't like that he had him and Justin cornered, alone.

"I hadn't thought of that," Flint said, glancing inside the classroom at the spiky bushes lining the wall. "You make a good point though, those spiky bushes can be tricky. What's your name?"

"Spinnet," Justin replied. "Justin Spinnet."

"Alright Spinnet, you're going to give me your clothes," Flint declared.

"What?" Justin frowned. "No way!"

Suddenly, Flint had grabbed Justin by the front of his robes and shoved him against the wall. Louis wanted to help, but he didn't see how he could. Flint was strong – there was no way Louis could pull him away.

"What'd you say to me?" Flint asked dangerously.

"Well I only meant…" Justin muttered, his voice starting to tremble. "These sweaters are mine. Don't you have any of your own?"

"Of course I do," Flint said. "But they're all the way in the dungeons and class is about to start. Come on, hand them over, I don't want to get spiked."

"But then what about me?" Justin asked.

Flint shrugged. "That's hardly my concern."

Looking down at the ground, Justin reluctantly began to remove his topmost sweater. Louis frowned. This wasn't right. Flint shouldn't be able to take things from people just because he was stronger and scarier than them.

"Justin doesn't have to give you anything," Louis declared loudly.

Now Flint rounded on Louis, backing him up into a corner and staring him down with an icy look.

"Are you talking back to me?" Flint demanded, grabbing Louis' arm and slamming it painfully into the wall. Louis winced as his elbow began to throb and tried to avoid looking Flint in the eye.

"Are you going to answer me, or just ignore me?" Flint demanded when Louis didn't say anything.

At that moment, Professor Longbottom appeared with Justin right behind him. With Flint distracted by Louis, Justin had been able to slip past him to get their teacher.

"Is everything all right out here boys?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"Of course Professor," Flint said, immediately letting go and taking a step back. "We were just having a small disagreement."

"Well you'd all better get inside, because we're about to start," Professor Longbottom instructed.

Never more happy for a herbology lesson, Louis hurried into the classroom with Justin, taking seats clear across the room from Flint and his buddies.

"Thanks Louis," Justin said as they sat down at their stools. "You know, for standing up to him."

"Thanks for getting Professor Longbottom," Louis added. "You might have saved my life there."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Justin nodded.

They were silenced when Professor Longbottom started the lesson.

"Alright everyone, now I know you're all very excited for our very first practical lesson. Your task will be to extract the liquid that resides in the spikes without inciting the spiky bush to attack you. If it does, I have a potion that I can administer to anyone who is pierced by a spike, so there's no lasting danger to any of you," Professor Longbottom announced.

Under his breath, Louis muttered to Justin. "See? You didn't need those sweaters after all."

"Just because he can fix us up doesn't mean it's not better to not get spiked at all," Justin pointed out.

"Finally," Professor Longbottom continued. "I had intended for this to be a solo project, but have recently decided that it would be beneficial to have you work in teams and try to cooperate with one another. I of course, will be determining the teams."

Louis frowned at that. Why couldn't they work alone? It would be much more efficient, and Louis would learn a lot more without someone else doing half the work anyway.

When Professor Longbottom announced his partner though, Louis knew exactly why he'd decided to have the first years work in pairs. Louis' partner was David Flint.

"Professor?" Louis asked once the herbology instructor had finished calling the pairs and everyone was moving to sit with their partners and to select a spiky bush.

"Louis," Professor Longbottom nodded. "You'd better get started, you only have this one class to get the spiky bush juice out of the spikes, and you know it's only good when it comes from an attached spike. The detached spikes will be useless. It's going to take some time."

"I know," Louis nodded. "I just wanted to ask if maybe I could have a different partner?"

Professor Longbottom shook his head. "I'm sure you realize that my decision to assign partners was due to what I witnessed in the hallway just now?" he asked.

Louis nodded. "But… I can't work with Flint. I just can't. You saw."

"Based on what I saw, I think it's imperative that you do work with Flint, and try to resolve your differences, whatever they might be," Professor Longbottom said.

"We can't," Louis shook his head. "He – "

"You're in herbology class, Louis," Professor Longbottom pointed out. "I'll be watching. It's not as though he can do anything."

Louis nodded. Obviously Professor Longbottom wasn't going to let this go.

"Fine," Louis sighed. "I'll try."

"That's the spirit!" Professor Longbottom said happily. "Now run along and get started."

Dreading the next forty-five minutes of his life, Louis walked over to Flint and took a seat next to him, their plant on the desk in front of them.

"Trying to trade partners?" Flint sneered, referring to Louis' talk with Professor Longbottom.

"No," Louis lied. "Just asking about the best way to go about this assignment."

Flint made a face, indicating that he knew Louis was lying.

"Well I've come to a decision," Flint declared, leaning back in his chair.

"Oh?" Louis asked, afraid of what the decision might be.

"Since you prevented me from receiving protection from the spiky bushes – "

"You mean since I prevented you from stealing someone's sweaters?" Louis interjected.

"Since you made it so that I couldn't be protected in any way," Flint continued. "I've decided that it's only fair that you be the one to work on the spiky bush."

"I think we're both supposed to do the assignment though," Louis frowned. "You know, as a team?"

"Well I'm not really feeling the team spirit, after you came after me in the corridor," Flint said.

"Wait, after _I_ came after _you_?" Louis cried.

Flint ignored him. "And since I'm now vulnerable to being spiked, I really don't think I should be anywhere near it if it decides to shoot one out."

"But what about me?" Louis demanded. "I'm not protected either."

"Well that was obviously your own choice," Flint shrugged. "I can't be blamed for that."

"Professor Longbottom has potion for people who get spiked," Louis pointed out, hoping to make Flint see that his concerns were unfounded.

"So you should have nothing to worry about," Flint nodded at the plant. "Go ahead. And make sure you get two samples, one for each of us. The first sample you extract will be mine, I think. Just to make sure you don't stop after handing in your own."

Louis was ready to protest, but suddenly Flint's eyes went dark.

"You don't want to argue with me," Flint said dangerously. "Trust me."

Louis gulped audibly. If the events in the corridor earlier were any indication, Flint could do much more than threaten. Louis' elbow throbbed, as if to confirm this. Professor Longbottom might be watching now, but he wouldn't always be.

"Fine," Louis nodded, turning to the plant.

It was a difficult task. And it was made even more difficult by the fact that he had to do it alone. If Flint could help, even by simply diverting the plant's attention, Louis might have a better chance getting a useable sample.

The first spike to shoot out of the plant, Louis dodged with ease. The second was much more unexpected, hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to cry out with pain.

"Don't be such a baby," Flint ordered, grabbing the spike and pulling it out, only causing Louis' pain to amplify. "You can get the healing potion when you're done."

Gritting his teeth and trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, Louis set to work again. It was harder now, with one arm screaming in pain when he tried to move it, but eventually he managed to extract the first sample.

"Perfect," Flint said, grabbing the syringe from Louis' hand and ejecting the liquid into a clear vial, stoppering it and writing his name on the label. He started to head towards the front and Louis called after him.

"Hey, we still don't have my sample," he said.

Flint shrugged. "That's hardly my problem."

He dropped off his sample on Professor Longbottom's desk and left.

"Louis, is everything alright?" Professor Longbottom asked, coming over to see why Flint had left. "Are you already finished?"

"No, I only got one sample so far," Louis said.

"Well David really shouldn't have left then," Professor Longbottom said. "I'll have to mark him down for this."

"No," Louis shook his head. "Please don't. He um… just went to get some bandages from the hospital wing. For my shoulder." As much as Louis wished Professor Longbottom would fail Flint, he knew Flint would only blame him for anything going wrong.

"Louis, you should have mentioned you were spiked!" Professor Longbottom cried. "Don't you remember, I have a potion for that."

"Oh, right," Louis nodded, feigning forgetfulness. "I guess it slipped my mind."

Professor Longbottom hurried to get the potion and measured out a dose for Louis. "Just take that, and you'll feel better in no time."

Louis took the medicine offered him, and immediately the pain in his shoulder subsided. He was still bleeding, but he could tell it was healing.

"Thank you," Louis said appreciatively, before getting back to work.

It didn't take long to get the second sample. With Flint gone, Louis could focus and he didn't get as distracted as before, so it was much easier. Once he had his sample, he sighed with relief and dropped it off on Professor Longbottom's desk.

"Excellent job Louis," Professor Longbottom nodded. "You may as well leave. If you run into David, you can tell him not to bother with the bandages. I can see your shoulder is healing up nicely.

Louis nodded. It was true, his shoulder was almost completely healed. The blood that was left was old blood – the wound had basically closed up by now, and certainly hadn't bled since he'd taken the medicine.

As soon as he left the greenhouse, Louis headed for the nearest bathroom to clean up his wound. As he splashed some water on it, he inspected the gash to his robes. Someone would have to mend it. Perhaps the elves would do it when he sent it through the laundry. He'd never needed his clothes to be mended – he'd only been at Hogwarts a short time after all – but it seemed like something they'd do.

"Louis!" Justin cried, hurrying into the bathroom. "Are you all right? I can't believe you had to work with Flint!"

"I'm fine," Louis assured him. "The assignment's done, and my shoulder's healed. Did you get spiked at all?"

Justin nodded. "But my sweaters worked perfectly. It never even grazed my skin. The sweaters are all full of holes now though."

"The elves will probably mend them," Louis said.

"Oh good!" Justin nodded. "Then no harm done."

"You know you still look ridiculous?" Louis asked, gesturing to Justin's attire, laughing.

"Not as bad as you with that gaping wound," Justin pointed to Louis' arm. "You look like you've been to war and back."

"At least we don't have to work with spiky bushes anymore. Bouncing bulbs next class, right?" Louis asked.

Justin nodded. "Professor Longbottom said so after you'd left."

"Good," Louis smiled. "Hopefully we don't have to work with any more dangerous plants this year."

Since it was lunch next, Louis and Justin decided to return to their dorms to change before eating. Louis wanted to put on some robes that weren't bloodstained, and Justin was eager to get out of his mountain of sweaters.

The rest of the month went by smoothly. Louis was thankful that he had no more run-ins with Flint. Though he occasionally caught the Slytherin leering at him across the classroom, he kept his distance, for which Louis was thankful. He could only hope Flint would continue to keep away from him.

"Stop that!" Justin insisted one day in transfiguration.

"Stop what?" Louis asked.

"Stop staring at Flint as if he's about to come over and pummel you to the ground," Justin clarified. "He hasn't even talked to you since the spiky bushes. Whatever happened it's over now."

"I guess you're right," Louis nodded. Only it didn't feel over. Not one bit.


	6. February Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 6: February 2016

As January became February, Louis and Justin spent more and more time together. At first their friendship had been one of convenience – both were in the astronomy club, so they shared that interest, and both needed a companion in classes and to study with. But slowly the boys were discovering that they had even more in common than they'd thought, and they enjoyed spending time together immensely. Louis worried that it was too soon to say so, but if he was asked, he'd say that Justin was becoming his best friend.

"Did you read that article in _Astronomy Weekly_ about black holes?" Louis asked one afternoon as he and Justin hung out in the Gryffindor common room.

"Not yet, was it good?" Justin wondered.

"Definitely," Louis nodded enthusiastically. "Some of the technical parts went over my head, but overall I understood it pretty well. And I'm sure Caleb can answer any questions I have."

"Speaking of, how's your part of the telescope project going?" Justin wondered.

"Really good," Louis replied. "We've just started fastening the first of the mirrors. Every time we put in a new one, I'm nervous the angle is going to be off, but Caleb keeps assuring me that it's not a big deal to adjust them later on. Though I'd hate to have made a mistake after so many calculations."

"I can't wait until it's finished," Justin said wistfully. "Do you think we'll get to be the first to try it out?"

"The two of us?" Louis asked. "Not a chance. We just joined the club. It'll be Melody first for sure, and then Caleb and Ben. They've been with the club longest and they've put the most work into the project."

"I meant before the teachers and the rest of the school," Justin amended. "Of course we wouldn't be the _first_ first."

"Oh, well then yeah," Louis said. "Probably."

"Do you think we'll get to try it before Professor Brunwell?" Justin wondered.

"I don't know," Louis shrugged. "But what does it matter? We'll get to use it eventually, and that's all that matters."

"True," Justin agreed. He paused. "I can't wait until I'm president of the astronomy club."

Louis laughed. "Who says you're going to be president? It could be me, you know."

"Well president or vice-president," Justin shrugged. "Either way, it'll be really cool to be in charge."

"That's a long way away though," Louis commented.

"True," Justin nodded. "Who do you think will take over next year?"

"Probably Ben," Louis replied. "But I think we have to vote on that."

"What about the rest of the team though?" Justin asked. "There needs to be a president, vice president, and a project manager."

"Well Greg and Arnold are the next oldest," Louis said. "Maybe them."

"But they're not really passionate about astronomy like some of us," Justin shook his head. "They just think it's mildly interesting. You heard them on the first day, neither of them wants to pursue a career in astronomy at all."

"I don't think that's really the criteria for leading the club though," Louis said. "Ben never said he wanted to work in astronomy, and he's project manager."

"Oh, he definitely wants to work in astronomy," Justin said confidently.

"How would you know?" Louis wondered.

Justin looked around, just to make sure nobody was around to hear him, and Louis knew this was top secret information.

"One time, while we were working on the telescope, I saw an application for MAI peeking out of his astronomy textbook," Justin confessed.

"Really?" Louis asked, raising his eyebrows. "Already?"

"You've got to apply early for those internships," Justin nodded. "It's really competitive at the Institution."

"I guess so," Louis nodded. "Do you think you'd ever apply?"

Justin thought about it for a moment. "I really don't know," he admitted. "It's still a little early to be thinking about careers to be honest, but I'd consider it. What about you?"

"Same," Louis agreed. "I'm only twelve. We're a long way away from fifth year and career advising."

"I think I'd want to have an idea what I want to do before then though," Justin said. "The end of fifth year seems a little late to be thinking about careers."

"Really?" Louis asked, surprised. "I would have said it's a little early."

"You'd have us waiting until we've already chosen our N.E.W.T. classes to figure out what we want to do with our lives?" Justin asked.

"I guess you make a good point," Louis allowed. "That wouldn't work at all. Maybe the end of fifth year is just the right time."

Justin opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment, Louis' sister, Dominique, came down from her dorm and walked over to her brother and his friend, taking a seat.

"Hey Louis," she greeted him.

"Hey Domi," Louis returned.

"How're things going?" Dominique asked. "Second term treating you well?"

"Yeah, pretty well," Louis agreed. "I'm enjoying it, if that's what you mean."

"Good," Dominique smiled. "Because I worry about you."

"You don't need to worry about me Domi," Louis assured her. "I'm fine. Much better than the beginning of first term. I'm settled. So you can worry about your own stuff."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Dominique demanded, immediately on edge.

"Nothing," Louis backed off. "I only meant, you know, that you didn't have to take time away from whatever you're doing to worry about me."

"Oh," Dominique nodded. "Right, of course. But you know I'll always worry about you, so there's no point suggesting otherwise."

Louis smiled at that. Even though he was fine, and he could take care of himself, he liked that his big sister looked out for him.

"And is everything going well for you?" he asked, sensing that there was something Dominique wasn't telling him.

"Of course," Dominique nodded. "Better than good. Fantastic."

Louis was pretty sure this was a lie, but let it go. "Well good, I'm glad. If you ever need anything – "

"Sure thing," Dominique smiled, cutting Louis off. "Anyway, if you're good then I should go. Miles is waiting for me. We have an assignment due in defence. It's a partnered essay on kelpies."

"Sounds fascinating," Louis nodded.

"Not in the slightest," Dominique laughed, standing up and waving goodbye.

"Love you Domi," Louis called after her as she made for the portrait hole.

"You too Louis," she called back before disappearing into the main castle.

Louis turned back to face Justin to find that his friend had a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"What?" Louis frowned at him.

"Who was that?" Justin asked, his eyes wide and his voice almost distant.

"Who Dominique?" Louis asked. "I'm sure you've met her before."

"I think I'd have remembered something like that," Justin assured him. "She's a goddess. Where did you meet her?"

"Um… at home I guess," Louis said. Technically he'd been a newborn baby when they'd met and all, and he could only assume it had been at shell cottage that she'd seen him for the first time. "I wouldn't really call it meeting her though."

"She must be third or fourth year," Justin observed.

Louis nodded. "That's right. Third."

"How did you manage it?" Justin wondered.

Louis frowned in confusion. "Manage what?" he asked.

"To find her," Justin clarified.

Unfortunately, this in no way made their conversation any less confusing for Louis. "What do you mean 'find her'? I've known her my whole life."

"Were you neighbors or something?" Justin asked. "Or were your parents best friends?"

"What?" Louis frowned. "No, Justin, Domi's my sister."

It was Justin's turn to look surprised. "Oh," he said. "Wow. Didn't realize that."

"What did you think?" Louis asked.

Justin shook his head. "Never mind what I thought. It doesn't matter. But just… wow. That's your sister. I should've realized. You look so much alike."

"Vic and Domi look even more alike," Louis said. "They both take after our mother, almost entirely. I have a lot more of my father in me."

"Well she's beautiful," Justin said.

Louis shifted uncomfortably. "She's alright I guess."

"Oh come on, don't you think she's the most beautiful girl you've ever laid eyes on?" Justin asked.

"She's my sister," Louis reminded his friend. "I don't think of her that way. And it's kind of creeping me out that you keep talking about her."

"Would you introduce me to her?" Justin asked.

"Not if you're going to be weird like you are now," Louis said.

"I won't, I promise," Justin assured him. "I'll be completely normal."

Louis narrowed his eyes, unsure if Justin was telling the truth or not. "I'll think about it."

LlLlLlLlLlL

Louis didn't have to think about it too hard. The following day at breakfast, Louis caught Justin staring dreamily in Dominique's direction four times, each of which he kicked Justin under the table in aggravation.

"Stop staring at my sister," Louis demanded. "You're being weird."

"You call it weird, I call it love," Justin sighed, his eyes glazing over as he looked back over at Dominique with her friends.

"Whoa! Slow down," Louis insisted. "You're not in love. You don't even know her."

"I know everything I need to know," Justin said in a dreamy voice.

Louis hit Justin in the head. "Hey!" he cried. "Snap out of it!"

Justin looked at Louis in surprise.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"Have you ingested love potion or something?" Louis demanded. "Because you're acting insane."

"I assure you, I'm completely sane," Justin replied.

"That's what an insane person would say," Louis pointed out.

"Also what a sane person would say," Justin added.

Justin had a point.

"What has you so infatuated anyway?" Louis wondered.

Justin sighed, glancing back at Dominique. "Everything about her. Her hair, her smile… the way her eyes light up when she laughs. Oh what I would do to be the one to make her laugh."

"You're being ridiculous," Louis insisted. "She's two years older than you. It's never going to happen."

"It could," Justin insisted. "If you'd just introduce us, I'm sure I could do the rest."

"It's not that – " And suddenly Louis stopped short. How had he not seen it before? In that moment, everything made perfect sense. He hadn't known Dominique could do it, which is why it had never occurred to him until then that it could be the problem. But it was the only logical explanation. None of this was Justin's fault at all.

After breakfast, Louis told Justin to go ahead to class and that he would join him shortly. Then he waited outside the Entrance Hall until Dominique emerged with her friends, laughing about something or other.

"Dominque!" Louis called out, stopping his sister in her tracks. "Can we talk?"

"Louis," Dominique greeted her brother. "Sure, is it quick? I don't want to be late to muggle studies."

"It's quick," Louis confirmed. "But it's kind of… private."

"Oh, sure," Dominique nodded, sending her friends away.

"Can we maybe talk outside?" Louis wondered, gesturing to the double doors that led to the Entrance Courtyard.

"Louis, it's the middle of winter, I'm not going out there in my indoor robes. Just say what you need to say," Dominique insisted.

"Fine," Louis nodded, unsure where to start. He fiddled with his hands for a moment until Dominique sighed in frustration.

"If this isn't important – " she said.

"No, it is!" Louis assured her. "It's my friend, Justin."

"Oh," Dominique nodded, her face showing that she was already running through every possible reason Louis and his friend could be having a problem. "Did you argue - ?"

"He thinks he's in love with you," Louis declared.

"Oh!" Dominique said in surprise. "Well that's… nice, I guess."

"No it's not," Louis shook his head in disbelief. "It's terrible."

"Well it's not terrible," Dominique said. "I mean, I'm flattered, but if he thinks something's going to happen between the two of us – "

"Are you doing it?" Louis cut her off, his stomach twisting into knots as he waited for her answer. He'd had to ask. But now that he did, he regretted it.

"What are you implying?" Dominique asked slowly.

"I think you know what I'm implying," Louis said carefully.

Dominique took a step back as she processed the accusation. "Louis, you know I can't – and even if I could, I would never – "

"Are you sure you can't?" Louis asked. "Maybe you're doing it and you don't realize it."

"I think I'd know if I'd inherited any Veela powers, thank you very much," Dominique said, crossing her arms angrily.

"Look, I'm not – Even _Maman_ sometimes doesn't realize she's doing it – "

"I am _not_ coercing your friend into loving me," Dominique said matter-of-factly. "And I'm offended that you would even suggest such a thing."

"But what if it was happening, and you didn't even know it?" Louis asked. There had to be a reasonable explanation for Justin's behaviour. There had to be.

"It's not," Dominique assured him. "I don't know what's going on with your friend, but have you considered the possibility that I'm simply a very attractive person and Justin happened to notice?"

"It's not that I don't think – "

"What?" Dominique cried. "You don't think anyone could find me attractive without me forcing them to? Is that what you think?"

"I didn't – " Louis struggled to find the words. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "I shouldn't have accused you. I should go."

"You should," Dominique nodded. "And next time, try thinking before you speak."

Louis hung his head and watched as Dominique disappeared up the stairs. Feeling embarrassed, he began to make his way downstairs for potions.

It had been a terrible idea, suggesting that Dominique was somehow controlling Justin's emotions. She couldn't do that – none of them could. The Veela magic was too diluted at this point for them to have any of the powers. All they'd inherited was the genetic components – the blonde hair, the charismatic face… that's what Justin must have seen in Dominique. He was infatuated all on his own.

When Louis arrived in potions, he took the seat next to Justin and took a deep breath before speaking.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"What?" Justin asked, caught off guard. He hadn't been expecting an apology and clearly wasn't sure what it was for.

"For saying you were insane, or that you'd ingested a love potion," Louis clarified. "I forgot that me and my siblings can be… magnetic for lack of a better word."

"Oh, I see that now you're lumping yourself in there," Justin observed.

Louis' face flushed. "That's not what I – I just meant – Yes. Dominique is attractive. I don't see it because she's my sister, but it's true. It's only natural that you'd notice."

"Thank you Louis, I appreciate your understanding," Justin said.

"Good," Louis said. "Then I hope I'll have your understanding when I say that I'm never going to introduce you to my sister."

Justin's smile dropped at this. "Why not?" he practically whined.

Louis rolled his eyes. "Because she's my sister and it's weird," he said. "If you want to talk to her, then you're going to have to go up to her yourself, because I'm not getting involved."

"I guess that's fair enough," Justin agreed. "Even though you could make this a hundred times easier for me."

"I know I could," Louis nodded. "Which is exactly why I won't do it."

"Some friend," Justin muttered, but Louis knew he meant it as a joke. They were fine.

LlLlLlLlLlL

For the rest of the day and the next, Louis tried to find an opportunity to speak to Dominique alone. He wanted to apologize for everything that had happened, but whenever she saw him, she either disappeared, or else engrossed herself in a conversation with one of her friends, indicating that she was busy.

It wasn't until the following day that Louis finally stumbled upon her alone in the library.

"Dominique?" Louis asked, approaching cautiously.

"Louis! Now's not a good time," Dominique said. "I have this charms assignment that I have to work on."

"This will only take a minute," Louis assured her, sitting down across from her without her permission.

Clearly seeing that there was no avoiding it, Dominique set her quill down and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms immediately to indicate that she was still mad.

"I'm sorry," Louis said.

"I'm sure you are," Dominique nodded.

Louis hung his head. "Look, I shouldn't have – "

"You shouldn't have," Dominique agreed. "So how could you?"

Louis sighed. "It's just really weird for me to have my friend saying these things about you. You're my sister, so obviously I don't want to think of you like that."

"What sorts of things does he say?" Dominique asked, leaning forward, indicating that she was interested.

"That you have a beautiful smile," Louis said, shifting uncomfortably. "There was something about your eyes lighting up when you laugh. Some other stuff too."

Dominique's scowl broke and he could see her holding back a smile.

"That's actually really sweet," Dominique admitted, the smile winning out.

Louis shrugged. "I guess, if you're a girl," he muttered.

Dominique laughed.

"So will you forgive me then?" Louis asked.

Dominique was silent for a moment. "What you said to me – that was really low," she said. "You really hurt me. That you could even think that I'm capable of being so manipulative – "

"I know," Louis bowed his head. "I didn't think."

"You didn't," Dominique agreed. "Words are powerful things. You have the power to break someone, to crush their whole soul, just with the words that come out of your mouth. Don't take that lightly."

"I won't," Louis vowed. "And it's not that I thought anything bad about you, Dominique. Really. It's just that I wasn't even thinking at all."

Dominique nodded. "I'll forgive you," she decided. "But you should be more careful in the future what you say to people. Next time it might not be a sister who's so forgiving."

Louis nodded. He would watch the things he said from now on. If this whole thing had taught him anything, it was to think before speaking.

"Thanks Dominique," he said.

She nodded. "I really do have a charms paper though," she said then, gesturing to the work surrounding her. "I need to work."

"Right," Louis nodded, standing up and pushing the chair he'd vacated back towards the table. "See you later then?"

"See you later," Dominique nodded.

Louis left the library and began to head to the astronomy club room. Now that he'd cleared things up with Dominique, his conscience was no longer weighing on him. And all he wanted to do now was to screw some mirrors into a telescope shaft.


	7. March Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 7: March 2016

"What's the angle for this one?" Caleb asked.

"Thirty two degrees," Louis replied, reading from their notes.

The telescope project was really coming along. Louis was excited, because for once it was actually looking like something more than a pile of materials.

"Got it," Caleb declared, double checking the measurement once before pulling back. "I think that'll do it for today."

"Can't we do another one?" Louis asked. He was dying for the telescope to be finished, and the sooner they finished their part, the sooner he could take a look through it.

"Not today," Caleb shook his head. "We need to wait on Melody and Makayla before we can add any more. Besides, I've got a Quidditch practice in fifteen minutes."

Louis nodded, disappointed that there was no work left to be done today, but understanding that they couldn't do everything at once.

"See you tomorrow," Caleb said then, packing up his things and heading out.

"See you," Louis waved back.

Then he sighed. He supposed he should be getting to his history essay, but he was reluctant. It was on the gargoyle strike of 1911, which in his opinion was an incredibly boring topic.

Louis knew he had to write it eventually, so he gathered his things and headed out. His plan was to go to the library – Justin would probably be there already, since he and Ben weren't working on anything telescope related today.

As Louis walked down the deserted seventh floor corridor, he suddenly realized that the corridor was filling with smoke. He whirled around, looking for the source, but didn't see anything. The smoke was getting higher and higher and thicker and thicker, and Louis started to panic. Where was it coming from? Was something on fire? He started to run, but the smoke was too high and too thick for him to see where he was going and he ran into a wall.

"There you are Louis, good to see you again," a familiar voice said through the smoke.

"Flint," Louis coughed. "What's going on? Is there a fire?"

"Just a little smokescreen spell," Flint said. Turns out the stuff Professor Derlid is teaching us really can come in useful.

Louis tried running in a different direction, but banged his head on a suit of armor.

"There's no point trying to run," Flint said. "You'll never make it out until I reverse the spell."

Louis searched his mind for the counter-spell, but he couldn't remember it. He knew Professor Derlid had told them what it was, but since nobody had cast the spell successfully in class, they hadn't had a real need to use it yet.

"When did you become so proficient at defensive magic?" Louis wondered.

"I suppose it's a gift," Flint responded.

One final time, Louis tried to run for the end of the corridor, but he found his path blocked by the very boy he was trying to run from.

"You should remember that as the caster of this spell, I can see while you can't," Flint said. "You don't stand a chance."

Giving up, Louis shrunk back to get away from his tormentor. "What do you want?" Louis demanded.

"Professor Binns assigned a history essay to all of us," Flint said.

"I know," Louis nodded. "I was just going to write mine."

"Perfect," Flint declared. "You'll write mine too."

"No!" Louis protested. "That's not fair!"

"This isn't about what's fair," Flint said. "Either you write my essay, or I put you in the hospital wing. It's your choice. But I think I've proven that I'm perfectly capable, so you might want to think twice before saying no."

Flint was right. Louis would have no chance if it came to a fight. Especially since it was clear that Flint was extremely good at cornering him when he was alone.

"Alright," Louis agreed with a sigh, not seeing another way out of this. He could report Flint to a Professor, but all that would do was ensure that Louis would end up in the hospital wing.

"I thought you'd see things my way," Flint said, muttering the counter-spell to the smoke. "I'll come and collect it from you tomorrow."

As the smoke dissipated, Louis saw Flint rounding the corner of the hallway. Relieved that he was gone, Louis leaned against the wall, breathing deeply. Flint's presence always made him nervous, but at least this time things hadn't gotten physical.

If Louis only had a day to write Flint's essay, he'd have to start it now. His own essay would just have to wait until Flint's was done. Louis wasn't sure how he was going to manage to write two completely different essays on the same topic, but he knew it was in his own best interest not to hand in copies that were too similar, or they'd be accused of cheating.

When Louis arrived in the library, he sat down next to Justin, frantically getting his things out in an effort to get done with this as fast as possible.

"Whoa!" Justin cried. "What's the rush?"

"Got to get this essay written," Louis muttered.

"What, history?" Justin frowned, seeing the textbook Louis had with him. "That's not due until the end of the week. You still have time."

"Yeah, but now I have to write two of them," Louis said. He explained to Justin what had just happened with Flint in the corridor and Justin looked livid.

"He can't do that!" Justin cried.

"He can and he did," Louis replied. "And I'm not about to let him beat me up if I can help it."

"Well I can help," Justin offered. "I've already started mine. If I just re-word what I've already written, you'll have half of what you need."

"Thanks," Louis said gratefully. "The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can work on my own essay."

The two boys worked quickly, and in only a few short hours, they'd finished Flint's essay and Louis had started on his own.

"Yours shouldn't be too hard now," Justin pointed out. "Since you've already written it once."

"Except that now I have to make it so that it doesn't sound anything like what I've already written," Louis said. "Which is like, ten times harder than just writing an essay in the first place."

"You'll manage," Justin assured him. "It'll be fine."

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next day, true to his word, Flint came and found Louis in the library after classes were over. He brought with him an incredible show of force – all four of his fellow Slytherin boys trailed behind him – and Louis was extremely glad to have complied. The prospect of one Slytherin beating him up was one thing, but five would be unthinkable.

"You have my essay?" Flint asked.

"Here," Louis said, pulling it from among his things and holding it out. "You might want to recopy it though, so it's in your own writing."

Flint nodded and glanced over the document. "Someone helped you," he observed. "The writing at the beginning is different than at the end."

Louis swallowed and nodded. "Justin did the beginning," he admitted, hating to drag his friend into things.

Flint lowered the essay. "Perfect, then he can help you write their essays," he said, gesturing to the four boys behind him.

Louis faltered. "W-what?" he asked.

"You heard me," Flint said. "You're going to write essays for them too."

"But I already wrote yours," Louis protested.

"You think they want to do this dumb assignment any more than I do?" Flint demanded. "Our agreement stands. The hospital wing is waiting for you if you don't want to. That goes for you too," he added for Justin's sake.

Louis felt himself shaking. One extra essay was one thing, but _five_?

"And they'd better all be good," Flint added. "We all need some O's to boost our grades."

"Right," Louis nodded. How was he supposed to ensure O's when he himself struggled to get O's in history?

"We'll get those essays to you all as soon as we can," Justin spoke up.

"We'll need time to recopy them, like David," one of the other boys, Darian Reed, said. "So we want them in advance."

"No later than tomorrow afternoon," Flint decided. "We'll find you."

Louis gulped and nodded as the five boys turned to leave. He thought he might have seen an apologetic look on one of their faces, but decided he must have imagined it.

Turning to Justin, Louis groaned. "This is a disaster!"

LlLlLlLlL

With only a day to write four essays, Louis and Justin got started right away. Unfortunately, it was becoming more and more difficult to come up with unique ways of saying things that wouldn't make it obvious that all the essays were written by the same two people.

"Hey Louis," Victoire greeted Louis, sitting down next to him in the library.

"Not now Victoire, I'm busy," Louis insisted, not even looking up from his history textbook. He was desperately looking for something new he could add, but he was afraid he was tapped out of information.

"Too busy for your big sister?" Victoire inquired.

Louis sighed, realizing Victoire wasn't going to be leaving unless he spoke with her for a moment.

"Sorry Victoire, but I really need to work on this essay," Louis apologized.

"Ooh, what's it on?" Victoire wondered.

"The gargoyle strike of 1911," Louis replied.

"Sounds like fun," Victoire said sarcastically.

"It's not," Louis agreed. "And I'm really busy at the moment, so if you don't mind…"

"Louis, is everything alright?" Victoire asked. She was always able to tell when something wasn't right. It was something Louis had always loved about her, but now he hated it.

"I'm fine," Louis assured his sister. "I'm just a little stressed out about school is all."

Victoire leaned forward and frowned when she saw the top of his essay. "Louis, who's Alec Roper?" she frowned.

"Nobody," Louis said hurriedly, pulling another piece of parchment to cover the essay he was working on. He didn't want Victoire to know he was writing Alec's essay and not his. Even less did he want Victoire finding out about everything that was going on with Flint. As a sister, she'd think it was her job to try to protect Louis from the Slytherins. As a prefect, she'd think it was her right to give them detentions for cheating and bullying. But Louis couldn't have that. Because it wasn't as though Victoire could shadow him forever, and eventually Flint and the others would find him on his own.

"Louis, if there's something going on – "

"There isn't," Louis insisted. "Look, if I need any help, I'll come and find you. But right now I'd just really like to focus."

"Alright," Victoire said, sounding unsure, but backing off just the same. "You know where to find me…"

LlLlLlLlLlL

If Louis had thought writing Alec's essay had been difficult, writing Darian's afterwards had been a nightmare. Though he hated Justin getting dragged in to everything, it was a relief not to have to write essays for the other two boys. Louis didn't think he'd have survived that.

When Flint came to collect the essays, Louis and Justin were mercifully finished with them and handed them over without a word.

"These better be good," Flint said, passing them to his friends. They left as quickly as they'd come, but Louis didn't feel any better with them gone. If one of the essays didn't receive a good mark, what would the Slytherins do?

LlLlLlLlLlL

Waiting for their history grades was torturous. They handed their essays in on Friday and had to wait a full week before receiving them back. Louis didn't understand why it took so long – Professor Binns couldn't sleep, so what was he doing that took up so much of his time? Why couldn't he have had them graded for Monday?

When Louis received his essay, he was pleased to see an E at the top of the page. If he'd gotten an E, he felt confident that the others boys had at least passed. The material he'd included in the essays was the same, just worded and organized differently.

Nervously, he glanced in their direction. Alec Roper was the closest, and when he tilted his paper at the right angle, Louis was relieved to see he'd received an E as well. Louis couldn't see anyone else's paper though, and their facial expressions weren't telling him anything.

When Flint looked in his and Justin's direction, Louis averted his eyes immediately. He didn't want to be caught staring – it would only incite Flint's anger, which Louis certainly didn't want.

"How'd you do?" Louis wondered, glancing over at Justin's paper. Justin's paper had only received a grade of A, and Louis felt his blood go cold. If Justin's first attempt at the paper was just a pass, the how had his third attempt turned out?

"Think any of them failed?" Justin wondered. He made no motion to indicate who he was talking about, but Louis didn't need any.

"I hope not," he replied. "But I guess we'll find out soon."

Justin nodded.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The rest of the day, Louis and Justin made sure to stick close to other people. They went nowhere unless it was with a crowd. They didn't know if Flint or any of the others had failed, but they weren't taking any chances.

By the end of the day, they were relieved to have made it safely to the common room. It was almost curfew when Justin realized he'd forgotten his transfiguration textbook in the library.

"Just wait and get it tomorrow," Louis said. "There's no telling if they're out there waiting, and the corridors will be close to empty at this time of day."

"They're probably already back in their own common room," Justin waved Louis' concern away. "They're bullies, but they're not stupid."

"Well I'm not condoning this," Louis said, crossing his arms. "It's a bad idea."

"You're going to send me on my own?" Justin frowned.

"Well by your own statement, they're probably not out there," Louis pointed out. "Besides, if they want to attack you, they want to attack me just as much. It's not like I'd be any protection."

"Fine," Justin said, squaring his shoulders. "Well I'm going. Who knows what Madam Maxwell will do with my textbook if she finds it lying around. Likely she'll check it into the library and I'll have to buy a new one."

"That wouldn't happen," Louis shook his head, but Justin was already on the move.

As Louis watched Justin climb out the portrait hole, he felt a twinge of fear for his friend. What if they really were out there? But then he shook it off, telling himself that he was being paranoid, and that there was nothing to worry about.

When curfew came and went, Louis started to panic. What was taking Justin so long? He wanted to go out after him, but he couldn't.

When Victoire returned from her rounds and Justin still hadn't returned, Louis really started to worry.

"Victoire!" Louis called out to his sister. "You didn't happen to see Justin when you were out there, did you?"

"No," his sister shook her head. "But I only rounded on the top three floors. Is he missing?"

Louis nodded. "He went to get his transfiguration book from the library, but he never came back."

"You're sure he's not up in your dorm?" Victoire asked, to check.

"I'm sure," Louis nodded. "He's still in the castle."

Victoire sighed. "I'll go and talk to the other prefects on duty," she said. "I finished pretty quickly tonight, they should still be out there."

"Thanks Victoire," Louis said earnestly.

"Louis, is there something you want to tell me before I go?" Victoire wondered.

"What do you mean?" Louis frowned.

"Just… is anything going on that I should know about?" she asked.

Louis shook his head. "No, everything's fine. Except that Justin's missing."

Victoire nodded. "Alright, I'll go see what's going on."

Victoire exited the common room, and left alone, Louis started to pace. He was sure now that something bad had happened. Justin was probably lying hurt and bleeding in a corridor somewhere and it was all Louis' fault. If he'd just gone with him, maybe he could have fought back. Two against five weren't great odds, but they were better than one-on-five.

After what seemed like an inordinate amount of time, Victoire finally returned.

"Did you find him?" Louis asked, running to her immediately.

"He checked himself into the hospital wing just before curfew," Victoire informed him. "Apparently he got caught in the trick stair and when he pulled his foot out, he ended up falling down the stairs and breaking his arm."

"Did you see him?" Louis asked, eyes growing wide. The trick stair was obviously a fabrication. This had Flint written all over it.

"No," Victoire shook her head. "But I read the report Madam Eldridge left documenting her patients. He's fine."

"I have to go and see him," Louis said, immediately heading for the portrait hole.

"Wait!" Victoire cried, grabbing Louis by the arm. "It's way past curfew, I can't let you go wandering around out there on your own."

"Then come with me," Louis insisted. "If I'm with a prefect, I can't get in trouble."

"No, but I can," Victoire stated. "Look, Justin's fine. He's probably already asleep. Just go up to your dorm, and wait for the morning."

Louis blew out a breath in frustration. He knew Victoire was right, but he didn't like waiting. When she refused to leave until she saw him safely upstairs, Louis gathered his things and ascended to his dorm. He contemplated waiting until she was gone and then sneaking out on his own, but he decided against it. If Justin was in the hospital wing, then he wasn't in danger. And Louis would only get in trouble if he got caught. Which he would, since the hospital wing was directly supervised by Madam Eldridge.

Sleep didn't come easily for Louis that night. Once he realized that Flint must have caught up to Justin, he started to wonder if the same was coming for him. Louis wondered which of the essays had failed. It probably didn't matter anyway. Flint would make sure to punish the both of them – a message not to mess with him again.

When morning finally came, Louis was up and out before any of his dormmates had even thought about rolling out of bed. He hurried down to the hospital wing as fast as possible and hurried straight to Justin's side.

"What happened?" Louis asked, seeing that Justin was awake.

"It's nothing," Justin assured him. Louis looked Justin up and down, but saw nothing wrong with him. "Stop looking for injuries, I'm fine. I wouldn't have even had to stay here, except that by the time Madam Eldridge had me all patched up, it was past curfew."

"It was Flint, wasn't it?" Louis asked.

Justin nodded. "Don't beat yourself up over it. You told me I shouldn't go, and I ignored you."

"Who failed?" Louis wondered, stomach twisting as he waited for an answer.

"It doesn't matter," Justin promised. "Flint won't come for you."

"Tell me," Louis insisted. "I need to know."

Justin sighed. "It was Reed. He got a P."

Louis' heart sank. "But I wrote that one," he said.

Justin nodded. "I told them I wrote it."

"You shouldn't have done that," Louis frowned.

Justin shrugged. "My arm was already broken. There was no reason for you to get hurt over it too."

Louis didn't know what to say.

"Just thank me and let's move on, shall we?" Justin asked.

"Thank you," Louis said immediately.

Justin nodded. "Now I just have to get the okay from Madam Eldridge and we can get out of here."


	8. April Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 8: April 2016

After Justin's stint in the hospital wing, the Slytherins had kept their distance. Louis wasn't sure whether to take this to mean they were done harassing them, or whether they were just biding their time – waiting for another moment to strike. Either way, Louis was on his guard.

Meanwhile, the rest of Louis' life was looking good. His grades were up, the telescope was coming along nicely, and he was enjoying himself more than ever.

"Did you ever decide what you wanted to do after graduation?" Louis wondered one day as he and Caleb worked on installing their mirrors.

"Hmm?" Caleb muttered, a little distracted.

"The first day of astronomy club, you said you wanted to work in astronomy, but you didn't know where specifically. I just wondered if you'd decided. You don't have much longer now, after all," Louis pointed out.

"Oh, right," Caleb nodded. "Yeah that's… I've applied to a few positions. We'll see what happens I guess."

Louis nodded. He wasn't overly satisfied with such a vague answer, but figured maybe Caleb was feeling some anxiety about the situation as well and didn't want to talk about it.

"What about Melody?" Louis asked, shifting the focus to the other seventh year in the astronomy club. "Has she heard back from the Magical Astronomy Institution yet? Do you think she has a shot?"

"Let's just focus on these mirrors," Caleb said, gesturing to the one he was currently installing.

"Right," Louis nodded, a little disappointed. Usually Caleb enjoyed chatting with Louis while they worked. So why didn't he want to talk today?

LlLlLlLlLlL

"Attention astronomy club!" Melody Wellman declared one day while just about everyone was in the room working on various parts of the telescope project. "I have some very exciting news!"

Curiously, Louis dropped what he was doing to listen to the club president.

"As you should all be aware, a comet will be passing pretty close to the earth this Saturday night. Since this is sure a rare opportunity to see something like this up close, I've asked Professor Brunwell to give the astronomy club permission to use the astronomy tower that evening to observe it," she announced.

"You mean we're exempt from curfew?" Makayla asked excitedly.

Melody nodded. "We have the astronomy tower reserved for three hours, starting at eleven PM. You shouldn't have to leave your dorms until quarter to eleven, so anyone caught out after curfew before that will have points deducted and will not be allowed to join us in the astronomy tower. So please don't use this as an excuse to be foolish."

Louis exchanged a look with Justin across the room. This was beyond exciting! They were going to get to see a comet up close! Not to mention what they might be able to discern with some of Professor Brunwell's high-tech telescopes.

Louis rushed through the remainder of the work he and Caleb were doing, eager to get to the library to start researching this comet. He wanted to know everything he could about it before Saturday. Just because he was a first year didn't mean he had an excuse to be ignorant.

"Whatcha got there?" Justin asked, wandering into the library a little later to find Louis with a pile of astronomy books.

"I'm researching Saturday's comet," Louis replied.

"Well it won't be in there," Justin laughed. "It hasn't happened yet."

"No," Louis agreed. "But it's a recurring comet. So if I read up about times it's been near in the past, it'll give me an idea what to expect this weekend."

"That's actually brilliant," Justin said, pulling up a chair to join his friend. "You should be the one applying for an internship at MAI."

"Speaking of the Institution," Louis said. "Any idea when they let their applicants know if they've been accepted? Melody hasn't said anything, and Caleb always dodges the question."

Justin shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Can't imagine they'd know before they write their N.E.W.T.s though. It would be pretty embarrassing for MAI to accept someone and then for them to fail their astronomy N.E.W.T."

"Someone at risk of failing their astronomy N.E.W.T. wouldn't be applying to MAI," Louis pointed out.

Justin shrugged. "Well I'm sure an A wouldn't be too good either. MAI only accepts top applicants."

Louis nodded. This was true.

"I hope Melody gets in," Justin added. "She deserves it."

LlLlLlLlLlL

When Saturday finally arrived, Louis and Justin were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. They even took naps in the afternoon, deciding that this would be the best way to make sure that they were wide awake for viewing the comet that night.

When it was time, the descended from their dorms and made their way towards the portrait hole.

"And where do you think you're going?" a sixth year called out, blocking their path.

Louis pointed to the door. "We were just – "

"Going out past curfew, I expect," the sixth year said. "But not on my watch."

"No, you don't understand – " Justin tried to jump in.

"Oh, I understand that you think whatever first year hijinks you have planned is important," the sixth year interrupted. "But I don't care about whatever it is you were sneaking out to do. I care about the House Cup, and Gryffindor will never win if little chumps like you keep getting caught out after hours."

"We're not – "

"Not going to get caught?" the sixth year cried, almost laughing. "Oh, you all say that, and then when you do, you can't believe everything could have gone so horribly wrong. Well let me give you a piece of advice: you're not as stealthy as you think. If you were, you'd be sneaking out a little later, after the rest of us have gone to bed."

"But we need to – "

"Need to?" the sixth year scoffed. "You don't need to do anything. There's nothing out there that can't wait for morning. So just turn around and get your scrawny butts back up to your dorm and go to sleep for Merlin's sake."

"We have permission!" Louis cried, saying it in a rush to avoid being interrupted this time.

"Permission?" the sixth year asked, his face incredulous. "Who on earth would a couple of first years have permission to be out this late on a Saturday night?"

"Professor Brunwell," Louis stated, feeling certain that using the astronomy professor's name would lend credibility to his story.

"Oh, that's a good one," the sixth year laughed. "And what's the reason? Late night study session? Couldn't find time to slot you in during the day, so you scheduled one at night?"

"I'm sure wouldn't be at all strange for our astronomy Professor, given that everything interesting in that subject happens at night," Justin pointed out.

Louis had to applaud Justin. It was a good point.

"So is that what this is?" the sixth year asked.

"Well no, but – "

"I knew it," the sixth year didn't even let Justin finish his thought. "That's it, back up to the dorms with you both. Now. Before I get angry."

"But we really do have a good – "

Louis didn't have time to finish before the sixth year had both Louis and Justin by their necks and was manhandling them back to the boys' staircase.

"Do I have to drag you up there myself, or do you know how to get back to your dorm?" he demanded.

"We know how to find our dorm, thank you very much," Justin said.

"Good. And don't let me catch you sneaking out again. One step on the floor of the common room and you'll seriously regret it."

The sixth year walked away, leaving Louis and Justin at a loss for how to proceed.

"What do we do now?" Justin asked.

"I don't know," Louis frowned. He checked his watch. "The club will be meeting right about now."

"We can't miss this comet," Justin insisted.

Louis nodded. Justin was right.

"How about this?" Louis asked. "On the count of three, we make a run for it. If he's such a stickler for the rules, he won't come after us once we make it into the corridor."

"Okay," Justin nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Louis took a deep breath and got into position, motioning for Justin to do the same. Carefully watching out for the sixth year, Louis counted it out, and on three both boys made a mad dash for the portrait hole.

Just as Louis was pushing it open, a hand wrapped around his arm and jerked him back. Dismayed, Louis discovered that Justin had been caught too, and they were both being hauled back into the center of the common room.

"That was a bad idea," the sixth year declared.

"We're not breaking any rules!" Louis insisted. "We have permission to leave tonight."

"We're in the astronomy club," Justin added. "Professor Brunwell gave all of us permission to use the astronomy tower tonight to see a comet."

"You expect me to believe this is all about some stupid comet?" the sixth year asked disbelievingly.

Louis nodded.

"And I don't suppose anyone can corroborate your story?" he asked.

"Well there's Kelsey," Louis said, naming the only other member of the astronomy club that was in Gryffindor. "But at this point, she's probably already there."

"Isn't that convenient?" the sixth year mused. "Too bad I don't believe you."

"What do you care anyway?" Justin demanded. "If we get caught, we're the ones in trouble."

"I care about all of Gryffindor," the sixth year cried. "Where's your house pride? Your loyalty?"

Louis and Justin exchanged a look.

"Listen, if I have to camp out at the bottom of these stairs all night, I will. But neither of you is leaving Gryffindor Tower until curfew is lifted," he declared.

"But that'll be too late," Justin whined. "The comet will have passed long before then."

"Shame," the sixth year said, shoving the boys back onto the staircase. "Now scram."

Seeing no alternative, the boys reluctantly climbed the staircase to their dorm.

"Now what?" Justin wondered. "We can't just miss this! Surely Kelsey will come looking for us and then she can corroborate our story."

"She won't come," Louis shook his head. "They'll just assume we decided to sleep instead."

"This is so unfair," Justin groaned.

Louis agreed.

"We just have to wait for the sixth year to go to bed," Louis decided. "Just because he threatened to keep watch all night doesn't mean he will. He's bound to get tired at some point. I'm sure his house loyalty doesn't extend that far."

"I hope he goes to bed soon," Justin sighed. "We're already missing things."

LlLlLlLlLlL

After half an hour, Justin snuck down the stairs to see if the sixth year had retired yet. He hadn't.

After an hour, Louis took his turn to check on the status of the sixth year. When he poked his head out, it was like the sixth year was expecting him.

"I don't think so," he said. "Get back up there."

Louis slunk away, unsuccessful.

After another half hour, Louis and Justin were getting restless. The time the club had reserved in the astronomy tower was half over. At this rate, they might not get the chance to make it at all.

"Should we just go to bed?" Justin wondered.

"We're not giving up until it's over," Louis declared. "We can't."

Justin snuck down to check that time, but he returned and reported that the sixth year was still watching.

When Louis went down to check half an hour later, the sixth year was stretched out on a couch, eyes trained directly on the boys' staircase. He was alone in the common room now and he looked like some kind of student vigilante.

He didn't say anything this time. All he did was shake his head and Louis turned and climbed back up the stairs in defeat.

"Maybe we should give up," Louis sighed. "It's one AM. I'm exhausted."

"No," Justin shook his head. "We keep waiting. Like you said, we can't give up."

Half an hour later, Justin snuck down to see the situation. When he came back up though, it was with a look of triumph instead of disappointment.

"He's gone?" Louis asked excitedly.

Justin shook his head. "But he's asleep. If we're really quiet, I think we can sneak past him."

Following Justin back down the stairs, Louis carefully tiptoed into the common room and then past the snoring sixth year to the portrait hole. When the two boys finally emerged in the empty corridor, they felt an overwhelming sense of joy.

"We'd better hurry," Justin said then. "There's only a half an hour left. If we want to see anything we need to get there soon."

Louis nodded and the boys broke into a run towards the astronomy tower. When they were about halfway there, they ran into Kelsey and Dorothy.

"It's not over, is it?" Louis cried in despair.

"No," Kelsey shook her head. "Most of us have left, but Melody and Caleb should still be up there. They had to stay behind to clean up. Technically if you want to catch the comet you can still make it."

Louis and Justin thanked the girls and resumed their run, only stopping when they arrived at the door to the astronomy tower. Louis pulled it open, and Justin ran in first, Louis coming up behind him. The stairs were numerous, but neither boy slowed at the thought. They were running on adrenaline now, and Louis even took some of the stairs two at a time in an effort to reach the top quicker.

As they neared the top of the stairs, the sounds of an argument caused them to slow their pace. Louis stopped just short of where he would be visible to anyone in the tower and held out a hand to stop Justin as well. He didn't want to walk into anything he shouldn't.

"… stabbed me in the back!" Louis heard Melody's voice shouting.

"I didn't betray you," Caleb shouted back.

"Then what do you call this?" Melody demanded.

"It's not my fault they liked me better than you," Caleb cried. "But if it wasn't me, then it could have been anyone."

"Why didn't you at least tell me? Why all the secrecy?" Melody asked.

"I didn't want to get my hopes up," Caleb said. "And if I'd told people and then I'd been rejected… well I couldn't have taken that."

"And yet you had no problem at all putting me in that position," Melody cried.

"First of all, _I_ didn't put you in any position. This could have happened regardless of whether or not I'd applied. And second of all, you haven't been rejected yet. You haven't heard anything," Caleb insisted.

"Hearing nothing is as good as being rejected," Melody said. "You know that as well as I do."

"So what would you have me do?" Caleb demanded angrily. "Turn them down?"

"Of course not, don't be absurd," Melody cried.

"Then what?" Caleb asked. "What do you want from me?"

"Just leave me alone!" Melody screamed.

Fear of being caught eavesdropping trumped disappointment of not getting to see the comet, and suddenly Louis was shoving Justin down the stairs, afraid that if Caleb came down he would see them.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs and spilled out into the corridor, Louis grabbed Justin by the arm and dragged him into the adjacent classroom, shutting the door behind them and peering out through a crack in the wood.

Moments later, Caleb emerged from the astronomy tower and stomped down the corridor in the direction of the grand staircase. After a few more moments, Melody appeared, tears staining her face, and headed in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower.

"What do you think that was all about?" Justin wondered as Louis let him out into the corridor and they started to make their way back to their own common room.

"Wasn't it obvious?" Louis frowned.

Justin thought. "Well Melody was really mad at Caleb for doing something – sounds like he got chosen for something over her."

"Exactly," Louis nodded. "It's MAI. It has to be. Caleb must have applied for an internship too, without telling anyone."

"And Melody's mad because he got accepted and she didn't," Justin said, understanding. "That makes sense."

"I can't believe Caleb got accepted," Louis said, impressed. "I mean, it can't be more than a conditional acceptance at this point, but it's pretty cool."

"I can see why Melody's so upset though," Justin said. "Even though he probably didn't literally steal a spot away from her, what with all the applicants they must get, it's hard not to see it that way."

Louis nodded in agreement. "Hey, if you ever do decide to apply, do me a favor and tell me, alright?"

Justin laughed, but agreed. "And you'll do the same?" he asked.

"Of course," Louis nodded.

They arrived back at the common room and were relieved to find the sixth year still snoring away on his couch. They made it back up to their dorm with him none the wiser.

"Sucks that we didn't get to see the comet after all," Louis lamented as they climbed into bed.

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "But there'll be plenty of astronomical events to see in the future I'm sure. We'll have another chance."

"And next time, we should get a note from Professor Brunwell to prove we have permission to leave," Louis added.

"Definitely," Justin agreed.


	9. May Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 9: May 2016

With the arrival of May, Louis felt for the first time what it was to be at Hogwarts pre-exam time. It was chaos. The seventh years were worried about their N.E.W.T.s, because their results would determine their future careers. The fifth years were worried about their O.W.L.s, because their results would determine the N.E.W.T. classes they'd be eligible to take. The third years were panicking, because they had more classes to study for this year. It seemed that everyone was worried about something.

And Louis had no idea what to expect.

Thankfully, each of Louis' professors had scheduled after-hours review sessions throughout the last two weeks of May. They were optional of course, but there was no question in Louis' mind that he would go. The sessions would give students the opportunity to ask questions and get some extra practice time with their Professors present. It would be foolish to miss them.

The first of the first year review sessions would be for potions. It was scheduled to take place immediately after dinner, so as soon as classes were over for the day, Louis and Justin made their way to the library to quickly go over all their potions notes and make notes of anything they still didn't understand so that they would remember to ask questions and receive clarification.

It was while Louis was shuffling through his first term notes that Flint walked up, his fellow Slytherins flanking him.

"Hey nerds," he greeted the two boys.

Louis frowned at the greeting. He and Justin were hardly nerds. Just because they were in the astronomy club, and spent a great deal of time in the library didn't mean they were any better at school than the rest of their grade. In fact they were rather average, except for in astronomy. But Louis wasn't about to argue.

"Flint," Louis said, trying to hide the waver in his voice. When Flint came by, it was never a good thing. At least this time he'd chosen to corner them in the middle of a crowded library. He couldn't get physical with them with so many witnesses.

"I assume you're both going to the review session after dinner?" Flint asked.

Louis nodded. "Are you?" he wondered.

Flint shook his head and some of his friends laughed outright.

"I wouldn't be caught dead," Flint replied. "Extra school? I don't think so."

"Right," Louis nodded. What did Flint want? No way was he just here to chat.

Picking up on Louis' internal questioning, Flint dropped a sheet of parchment onto the table in front of the boys.

"What's this?" Justin wondered.

"That's a list of everything we in Slytherin need clarified," Flint declared. "By tomorrow we expect to get it back with answers to all our questions."

Louis looked down at the sheet and gasped. There must be over fifty questions on there!

"Wouldn't it make more sense for you all to just go to the review session and ask the questions yourselves?" Louis wondered.

Flint made a face. "I already told you, none of us would be caught dead at a review session," Flint insisted. "You'll get us our answers and return them to us."

Louis gulped and nodded. He knew what it would mean to refuse.

"And you'd better make sure that your answers make sense," Flint warned. "If you only confuse us more, we won't be happy."

Flint walked away and Louis turned to Justin, dismayed.

"This is impossible!" he cried. "Even if we ask all the questions to Professor Abbott-Longbottom, it would take all night to write out the answers in a coherent way."

Justin sighed. "Well we have to do it," he said. "We're stuck."

"I hate this," Louis grumbled. "I hate that he can just make us do whatever he wants."

"Well he can," Justin said. "Unless you want to break your arm this time?"

"Definitely not," Louis shook his head. He was still so grateful that Justin had shielded him from injury that one time. Louis would do anything to avoid being in that situation again.

"Here, let's split the questions," Justin decided, folding the parchment at the halfway mark and then ripping it in half. "And I bet we can answer some of these on our own. Better not to bother Professor Abbott-Longbottom with simple questions.

Louis nodded, taking the top half of the questions while Justin held onto the bottom half.

"And who knows?" Louis said, trying to see the bright side. "Maybe going over their questions will help us to solidify our own understandings of the subject."

"Excellent point," Justin nodded.

Louis knew if they were going to get this done in time, they had to get started right away, so he immediately started to read the questions on his half of the parchment.

 _When to use different kinds of stirring rods?_

 _What's the point of a thick-bottomed cauldron?_

 _Why do I have to wash my mortar and pestle every time I use them?_

Louis found himself laughing at some of the questions. "This shouldn't be too difficult," he said out loud.

Justin agreed. "Listen to this one; _where do bezoars come from?_ How can they even ask that, it was the first thing we learned about them!"

"This will be a piece of cake!" Louis declared.

When it was time to go to dinner, Louis had already answered over half of his questions. While many of the questions had been straightforward, others were more complicated and Louis found that he also was unclear on some of the topics. He made little stars next to the questions he didn't have answers to and made a mental note to bring those up in the review session later.

During the review session, Professor Abbott-Longbottom was very impressed with how prepared both Louis and Justin were. Not only did they have Flint and the others' questions, but they had some of their own as well.

When the session was over, the two Gryffindors retired to the common room, where they wrote out their final answers to all the questions. Some were simple one-liners, while others required paragraphs of explanation. When they were finally finished, they were exhausted and practically collapsed into their beds.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The following day was their herbology review session, and so when class finished for the day, Louis and Justin once again got settled in the library to flip through their herbology notes to find questions and clarifications to bring up with Professor Longbottom. As expected, Flint and the others approached, looking for their potions answers.

"Here you go," Louis said, handing over the papers. "It should all be in order."

"Excellent," Flint nodded. He dropped a new sheet of parchment on the table. "Here are our herbology questions. We'll collect them tomorrow."

The boys left and Louis found himself groaning. They'd barely managed to finish the potions questions last night, and now they were going to have to start all over with herbology?

"There's even more questions this time!" Justin cried as he counted in order to divide them evenly.

"When are we supposed to have time to work on our history paper?" Louis demanded. Just because review sessions were happening didn't mean they didn't have assignments still for other classes.

Justin shook his head. "Well there's no review session scheduled for tomorrow thankfully," he said. "So maybe we'll get a small reprieve."

"I hope so," Louis said, taking his half of the herbology questions. "I'm not about to fail first year because I was too busy making sure a bunch of Slytherins pass."

Many of the questions this time around were again extremely simple. There were questions about the benefits of certain pots over others, different soils over others. Some questions had to do with why certain plants needed to be watered more than others, and why some plants needed more sunlight than others.

Just like last time though, some of the questions were ones Louis couldn't answer, and so he marked them and then tucked the parchment away for the review session, where he would voice the questions.

Professor Longbottom was just as impressed with the boys as Professor Abbott-Longbottom was for coming so prepared. When Louis and Justin returned to Gryffindor Tower to write up their final answers, Louis thought about their situation.

"This might suck," he said. "But it's almost like a blessing."

"A blessing?" Justin frowned. "Being treated like Flint's personal servant and being threatened with force is a blessing to you?"

"Well not that," Louis shook his head. "But all this extra work. It's long and it's tedious, but we're learning a lot, and our Professors think we're great. It's like a blessing in disguise. I'm almost hoping to get more questions for the next review session."

"Well I'm not," Justin said. "I'd much rather do my studying on my own terms rather than their terms. Maybe you'd like to take all the questions next time?"

Louis shook his head vehemently. "I don't think I could manage that," he admitted. "Especially not if they keep giving us more each time."

"See? It's not really a blessing. You're just fooling yourself."

"I don't know," Louis shrugged to himself. Justin simply didn't understand. "Maybe not…"

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next day, the boys were grateful to have a reprieve. With no after-dinner review session scheduled for the first years, there was no additional parchment full of questions presented to them. Flint showed up to get the herbology answers and then disappeared without a word.

"We should definitely finish this history paper today," Justin declared once they were left alone. "Tomorrow's the transfiguration review session, and you can bet we won't have a free moment for work then."

Louis agreed, and the boys worked well into the night, polishing off their final history papers.

By the following afternoon, they had their parchment full of transfiguration questions and were more than ready to tackle it. If Louis had the time to pay attention, he'd say he was getting much faster at working his way through all the questions.

Professor Tonks was as impressed as the other Professors with the boys' preparedness, and when Louis and Justin found themselves back in the common room that night, Justin discovered that he understood Louis' statement from two days earlier.

"I wouldn't call it a blessing," Justin said. "But I see what you mean. It's like now that we've done this, I won't have to study as much later."

"Exactly," Louis said. "It's like we benefit from this too, even if we are getting the short end of the stick."

Relieved that Justin understood, Louis redoubled his efforts and finished his questions with time to spare. He even managed to complete his most recent charms assignment before going to bed that night.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next day, things got more complicated. Their final review session of the week was in defence, which was a much more practical than theoretical class. When Flint dropped off his and his friends' questions for the day's review session, Louis wondered if he should say anything to that affect.

"Hang on," Louis heard himself saying as Flint retreated.

He regretted speaking at all as soon as the words left his mouth, but it was too late now.

"What?" Flint grunted, clearly not in the mood to converse.

"It's just that…" Louis hesitated. "Don't you think you should come to this review session? Even if you don't go to any of the others, I don't know how well we'll be able to communicate the practical onto paper."

"Figure it out," Flint said, leaving without giving Louis the chance to explain himself.

"What was that about?" Justin demanded. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"He wouldn't kill us," Louis rolled his eyes, trying to lighten the mood. "Maim sure, but not kill."

"Gee, now I feel better," Justin said sarcastically.

Louis looked down at the questions before him.

"It's just… how are we supposed to answer some of these?" Louis asked. "We can describe a wand motion on paper with a thousand words, but the only way to really make someone understand is by having them learn it kinaesthetically."

"Kinaesthetically?" Justin said, making a face. "Look who sounds like a nerd now."

"Whatever," Louis shook his head, seeing that Justin was going to be no help.

Louis started with the questions he could answer – theoretical details of certain spells, issues of the legality of duelling, all the questions about ghouls and hags were easy enough to answer as well. When it came to the wand motion questions, Louis decided to draw a picture, figuring this would be easier than trying to describe things in words. Hopefully Flint and the others would understand his arrows.

The hard part was when he came to questions about dodging and other physical aspects of the subject.

"I don't even know how to answer this one," Louis said, staring in dismay at one of the questions.

"Let's hear it," Justin said.

" _If a spell is coming at you and you don't have time to cast a shield, should you dodge left or right_?" Louis read.

Justin had to stifle a laugh.

"It's not funny!" Louis cried. "One of them really asked that!"

"I'm sorry," Justin shook his head. "It's just… seriously? How is that even a question?"

"How do I answer?" Louis wondered.

Justin shrugged. "Just write that you can only know in the moment," he replied.

Louis though about this. What Justin said was true, there was no rule for this sort of thing. But would Flint be mad if he left the answer so vague? Louis decided to just make something up.

"You look like you're writing a novel," Justin observed as Louis scribbled away.

Louis shrugged.

"What are you even saying there?" Justin asked, grabbing the paper away from Louis. He started to read and then started to laugh. "Wow, seriously?"

"What?" Louis frowned. "It's good, sound advice."

"It won't always work though," Justin noted. In his answer, Louis had indicated that should the spell be targeting one's left side, one should dodge right and vice versa. But even Louis knew this was only basic rudimentary advice.

"It's something," Louis pointed out. "It's better than nothing at all."

"If you say so," Justin shrugged, going back to his own work.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Over the weekend, the boys took a nice break from all the studying. The other first years thought they were crazy, but both Louis and Justin agreed that they'd done enough studying through the week to deserve a couple days off. Besides, exams weren't until June.

Saturday afternoon found Louis and Justin lounging in the common room when a familiar voice shook Louis from his relaxed state.

"Louis?" Louis jumped and turned to face his cousin Molly, who was in the process of climbing through the portrait hole.

"Molly," Louis acknowledged his cousin. So far, he'd tried to avoid her at Hogwarts as much as possible, she not being his favorite cousin.

"What are you doing?" Molly cried.

Louis frowned. "What on earth do you mean?" he asked.

"You should be studying!" Molly exclaimed. "What will your parents think?"

Louis shrugged. "I'm taking a break," he informed her. "But I promise you, I've been studying plenty."

"A break?" Molly parroted back, as if unable to comprehend the word.

"Yes," Louis confirmed. "A break. You should try it sometime."

"Well that's simply – absurd!" Molly cried. "To even suggest such a thing…"

"Shouldn't you be studying now?" Louis wondered, only asking because he wanted Molly gone.

"Of course, you're right," Molly nodded. "I just had to come back and get my herbology notes. So I'd better – "

"You do that," Louis nodded as Molly rushed for the stairs that would lead to the girls' dorms.

Once Molly was gone, Louis turned to face Justin, who was making a face.

"My cousin," Louis said by way of explanation. "Not the most friendly of people."

"She's pretty intense," Justin nodded.

"No kidding," Louis agreed. "I find it best to steer clear of her whenever possible."

LlLlLlLlLlL

The following week passed much the same as the previous. Monday was the charms review, and as usual, Flint dropped off a list of questions in the afternoon, to be picked up the following day. On Tuesday, it was time for a history review session, and the list of questions Flint handed over was longer than for any other subject. Which was good, actually, since Louis himself struggled with history more than many other subjects.

Wednesday was the real challenge. Neither Louis nor Justin had had any intention of going to the astronomy review session, since they both excelled at the subject and knew more than most of their classmates combined. But when they saw the questions on Flint's sheet, they found themselves stumped. Of course, most questions they were able to answer easily, but there were a few that even they didn't know the answers to.

"I'm surprised to see you boys here," Professor Brunwell said when they slunk into the astronomy review session after dinner that night. "I'd have thought you'd already know everything there is to know."

"I'd have thought so too," Louis replied. "But we came across a few things in our revision – things we hadn't even considered before."

"Well I'm glad to have you both here," their Professor nodded. "I look forward to hearing your questions."

The review session actually went extremely well. Professor Brunwell was impressed by their questions, and Louis felt a little bad for passing them off as theirs, when really they belonged to the Slytherins. But by the end of the session, both boys felt extremely confident about their upcoming astronomy exams and were sure that they were now as prepared as they could be.

"They're not as dumb as we thought," Louis noted as he wrote up the answers to some of the questions that night.

"Who aren't?" Justin wondered.

"The Slytherins," Louis replied. "Flint and the others. This whole time, we've been talking about them like they're dunces, but some of these questions are really insightful."

"Don't forget these are the same people who asked where a bezoar comes from," Justin pointed out.

Louis thought about that. It was true. Some of the questions were so primary, even his little cousin Hugo could have answered them – and he was only eight years old. But other questions were more complex, well-thought out, and very smart.

"There are five of them," Louis realized. "And this is a compilation of all their questions. They might not all be smart, but at least one of them is."

Justin thought about that. "You might be right," he agreed. "Whoever asked about bezoars couldn't be the same person who asked about the mathematics of planet plotting on a map."

"No way," Louis confirmed.

Justin leaned back in his seat. "I wonder who it is then," he mused.

"Who who is?" Louis frowned.

"The smart one," Justin clarified.

Louis nodded. "Does it really matter?" he asked.

Justin shrugged. "I'd just be interested to know, is all."

"I'm sure they're all differing degrees of intelligent," Louis said. "It's not for us to decide that. And maybe some of them are better in some subjects than others. Who are we to judge?"

"You're right," Justin agreed. "We should just focus on finishing these questions."

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next day, Louis and Justin passed the final sheet of answers over to Flint. Though they'd found the exercise rewarding in some ways, they were more than glad to be done with it all. Now they could focus on their own studying instead of someone else's.


	10. June Year 1

_Year 1: Star Gazer_

Chapter 10: June 2016

While the lead up to exams dragged on forever, the exams themselves seemed to pass by in a blur of activity. Before Louis even knew it, he had wrapped up his final exam of the year.

"I can't believe it's over," Justin said as the boys walked away from the history of magic classroom.

"It doesn't feel real," Louis agreed.

However, even with exams over and done with, Louis and Justin weren't done with school quite yet. There was still the astronomy club telescope to complete.

"Hurry up!" Melody screeched Monday afternoon as everyone worked to get it finished as quickly as possible. "The unveiling is Thursday night and it's going to be really humiliating if it's not finished in time!"

Ever since Louis and Justin had overheard Melody and Caleb in the astronomy tower, they'd noticed that Melody was more and more irritable and easily angered. Not to mention she and Caleb kept a safe distance between one another at all times now.

"We're go as fast as we can," Caleb called back, screwing in another mirror. Louis held the protractor steady for his partner, knowing that even the slightest wrong angle would cause them to have to restart – something Melody would not thank them for.

"Well go faster!" Melody cried. "Professor Brunwell's counting on us!"

Louis wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't experienced it, but astronomy club was turning out to be even more stressful than his actual exams were. At least with his exams, he'd been the only one he could let down. But if he and Caleb failed to complete their part in time, they'd be letting down the whole team.

"Don't let Melody worry you," Caleb assured Louis on Tuesday. The two had elected to skip lunch and had stayed back to secure some more mirrors. At the rate they were going, they'd be done by the end of the day, which would give the rest of the team the time they'd need to put the finishing touches on the telescope. "We'll finish on time. If anything, we're a little further along than either me or Melody had expected back at the beginning of the year."

Louis nodded. He thought about Melody's mood recently and about the internship applications for MAI. He wondered if he should broach the topic but wasn't sure how Caleb would react to knowing Louis had eavesdropped on a private conversation.

"Has Melody heard anything from MAI yet?" Louis wondered, trying and failing to be discrete. "I'm sure they've sent their letters out by now."

"You'd have to ask Melody," Caleb replied shortly.

"And you?" Louis ventured.

Caleb's head snapped up in surprise. "I never said anything about applying to the Institution," he said.

"I just meant – you know, had you heard back from anywhere…" Louis muttered.

"Oh," Caleb nodded, clenching his teeth and looking away. "Right."

Now it was out in the open, Louis took his chances and pushed the subject.

"So about MAI…" Louis hesitated.

"I'd rather not talk about that," Caleb said, shutting the conversation down.

"Sure," Louis agreed, dropping it. "Here, do you need me to hold the protractor again?"

LlLlLlLlLlL

Just as Caleb had predicted, the telescope was finished on time. It was a relief to the whole club when it was completed, if only because it meant they'd all escaped the wrath of Melody.

The unveiling was scheduled for Thursday night, and the entire school had been given permission to be out after curfew if it meant they were going to the astronomy tower.

Louis and Justin could hardly contain themselves. Not only were they going to get to use the telescope finally – and this would be a thousand times cooler than the comet that they'd missed – but they were going to get to show the whole school that astronomy was cool.

On Thursday after dinner, the whole astronomy club trooped up to the astronomy tower to get things ready. Professor Brunwell had given them permission to rearrange his classroom however they liked, so Melody had everyone levitating the desks and other unnecessary things down to the main floor and storing them in the astronomy club room.

Bringing the telescope up was another matter. It had to be levitated by a team of three in order to keep it steady. It was assumed that Melody, Caleb, and Ben would do it, being the leaders, and also the oldest and most experienced club members. But Melody kept screaming that Caleb shouldn't be allowed to do it, because he was a disaster at charms and would surely drop it. When Greg and Arnold volunteered to help, she insisted that she would only accept the help of a sixth year or higher, and only if they were taking N.E.W.T. level charms. In the end, someone had to fetch Professor Brunwell, because Melody was getting too hysterical. He helped to levitate the telescope upstairs, and then he insisted on bringing Melody down to the hospital wing for a calming draught.

With Melody temporarily gone, Caleb was in charge. Louis thought he was a much better leader than Melody, if not at least he was calmer. He had the telescope positioned just right, and then instructed everyone on where to position the chairs around the circular room for their guests.

When Melody returned about an hour later, she was much less agitated and significantly more pleasant to be around. It was getting dark now, which meant soon it would be time to test the telescope. The school had been invited for eleven o'clock, which would give the members of the astronomy club a chance to use it before everyone else showed up.

Once everything was in place, Melody had everyone sit down. She took a deep breath and then she addressed them.

"So this is it," she said. "This is our last meeting of the year. I know it hasn't been the easiest year – and I know that I was a large part of making things more difficult, what with the yelling and the pressuring everyone to work harder. And I apologize for my mood these past couple of months, because I know it couldn't have been fun for you all. But just look at what we were able to accomplish together."

She pointed at the telescope with a wide smile on her face and let everyone just soak in and accept the fact that they'd built this. From their brains and their bare hands, they'd built this telescope.

"This telescope is _ours_ ," Melody said. "It's a testament to this group and our extraordinary teamwork. No other astronomy club has managed a feat such as this in all the years it's been in existence at this school. And whether you're leaving the school this year like I am, or whether it's only your first year… this telescope is part of your legacy. Professor Brunwell?"

Their astronomy professor came forward – Louis hadn't even realized he'd been there – and presented Melody with a plaque.

"This plaque will serve as a reminder for all future astronomy clubs of what we accomplished this year," she said. She placed it against a flat part of the body of the telescope and cast a spell to magically screw it on. "All your names are on it now. You are a part of this."

Out of nowhere, Ben started clapping, and his applause caused more applause, until the whole club was on their feet clapping their hands. Greg stepped over to stand next to Melody.

"And we the astronomy club thank you Melody," he said. "And Caleb and Ben as well. For all the time and effort you put into this project and the years of dedication you've given to the astronomy club. We wouldn't have done this without you."

Tears came to Melody's eyes and Louis couldn't help but smile as they all regained their seats.

"Thank you," Melody smiled. She cleared her throat and turned back to address the club. "Now since this is our last time together, I just wanted to share some news with you all. As you know, the Magical Astronomy Institution accepts twelve internship applicants from all over the world each year. It's a very prestigious Institution and to be accepted is a great honor."

"Wow," Justin whispered to Louis. "Only twelve? I didn't realize it was so exclusive!"

"This year, we at Hogwarts are pleased to congratulate Caleb Hardy for his acceptance into the program!" Melody finished.

This time the applause was even more fervent as everyone rushed to congratulate Caleb personally.

While the rest of the club was doing that, Louis turned to Justin. "Wow, looks like he got in after all," he said.

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "They sure processed those N.E.W.T.s quickly."

"They were over a week ago," Louis pointed out. "And I'm sure MAI is able to pull strings to get the results of their applicants processed before others."

"It's nice that Melody's happy for him," Justin commented, gesturing to the club president, who was presently giving Caleb a congratulatory hug.

"Yeah," Louis agreed. "I wonder what she'll do now."

Justin shrugged. "She's still a great student, and fantastic at astronomy. She'll find something."

Finally, Melody and Caleb settled everyone down. It was getting close to eleven and it was time to test the telescope for the first time.

"You should have the honor," Melody offered to Caleb.

"No," Caleb shook his head. "You're the president, and you put more work into this project than any of us. It should be you. It's only right."

With a smile, Melody gratefully accepted, and with a great amount of dramatics, she took the first official look through the telescope.

"How is it?" Ben called out excitedly.

Melody didn't respond at first, she was so focused on what she was seeing. When she finally pulled away, the look on her face was one of awe.

"I can't even describe it," she said. "But it's fantastic."

As vice-president, Caleb got to use the telescope next. When his turn was over, Melody joked that soon this telescope would seem like a shrimp compared to what he'd be working with at MAI.

Ben went third, as the final leader of the club. After he was done, the club offered the fourth turn to Professor Brunwell.

"Oh no," he shook his head. "I'll go once all of you've had a turn. This is your telescope after all, not mine."

"But we'd be nowhere without you," Trent insisted, practically dragging Professor Brunwell forward to take a turn.

Their Professor conceded, and couldn't help but contain his excitement when he looked into the eyepiece.

"This is simply splendid," he told them all. "Absolutely fantastic. You all did an amazing job here."

After Professor Brunwell's turn, the rest of the club lined up to take a look. As the newest members of the club, Louis, Justin, and Makayla stood at the back of the line. The other club members had spent the past two years working on this project, while they three had only jumped on the bandwagon at the end. They wouldn't feel right trying to take a turn before one of the others.

When Louis' turn finally came, he was beyond excited. The lead-up had been immensely suspenseful, not just today, but all year. And when he finally lowered his eye to the eyepiece and adjusted the lenses, he was taken aback. It was truly spectacular.

LlLlLlLlLlL

They waited in the astronomy tower for an hour, but when midnight came and went, Professor Brunwell told them they might as well head back to their dorms.

"I can't believe it," Louis said to Justin as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower. "Nobody came!"

"It doesn't make sense," Justin agreed. "Maybe the notice on the notice board got covered up by something?"

"In _all four_ common room?" Louis frowned, thinking this seemed unlikely.

Justin shrugged.

"The notice isn't the problem," Kelsey said, coming up behind the two boys.

"Then what is?" Justin wondered.

"It's us. It's the astronomy club. It's lame. Nobody wants to come to the unveiling of a telescope."

"How can you say that?" Louis asked, shocked. "Astronomy is the best."

"Well of course I agree with you," Kelsey assured him. "But to the rest of the school? This club is just as lame as the arithmancy club, and even lamer than the gobstones club."

"But if people would just come and try the telescope out, then they'd see – "

"But they won't," Kelsey said with a shrug. "That's just the way it is."

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next day, exam results for non-O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students were available, so Louis and Justin headed down to Professor Longbottom's office to retrieve theirs.

"How'd you do?" Justin asked as soon as they were back in the hallway.

"Hang on," Louis said, fumbling with the envelope. "Okay let's see… Astronomy O – "

"Nice!" Justin said. "Same here."

"Sweet," Louis nodded, obliging Justin in a high five. "Alright, um… in charms I got an E."

"Aw, good job man," Justin said. "I only got an A. But I got an E in defence!"

"I got an A in defence," Louis revealed.

"What about herbology?" Justin wondered. "I got an A there as well."

"Same," Louis agreed. "I'm just glad I passed that one though honestly. History too – looks like I managed an A in that one."

"Hey, I got an A in history as well," Justin said. "Though I was sure it'd be a P and I'd have to go to summer school."

"Thankfully not," Louis nodded in relief. "Looks like I passed everything. A in transfiguration and an E in potions."

"Awesome," Justin said. "I got the opposite there as well; E in transfiguration and A in potions."

"Pretty good reports to say the least," Louis said, satisfied. "I wouldn't show mine to Molly, but I wouldn't want to see hers either."

"Why's that?" Justin wondered.

Louis laughed. "Because she's bound to have straight O's again just like last year and it'd only make me feel badly about myself."

"Straight O's?" Justin cried. "That's insane!"

"That's Molly," Louis replied.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The following day it was time to head home. Louis and Justin realized belatedly that they hadn't packed yet, so Saturday morning turned into a mad scramble to locate all their belongings in time to make it to breakfast. They didn't make it. By the time they were packed and downstairs, breakfast was over and the students of Hogwarts were making their way down to Hogsmeade station.

"We'll be able to grab something to eat on the train," Louis assured Justin. "And thankfully there's that trolley full of healthy food, so we should be able to find something nutritious to make up for missing breakfast."

The trip to Hogsmeade station was a rather uneventful one, and in no time, Louis and Justin were settled in a compartment, staring out the window at the castle in the distance.

"Looking forward to next year?" Justin wondered.

Louis nodded. "Should be interesting," he agreed.

Whatever fortunes and misfortunes first year had brought Louis, he knew for certain that second year was bound to be even better. Not only would he be older, wiser, and more mature, he and Justin would also be returning members of the astronomy club, riding on the tailcoats of this year's feat with the telescope.

"Just think of the incoming first years," Louis said. "At least one of them will surely join the astronomy club, and next year, we'll be the ones who know everything, teaching the new kids."

"You're right," Justin agreed. "And who knows? Maybe we'll come up with an even cooler project to undertake next year. I mean, we have to come up with something to top the telescope now that it's finished."

"I wonder if Ben has any ideas?" Louis wondered.

"Oh, he has ideas," Justin nodded with a smirk. "I saw a parchment with the title _Astronomy Club Ideas_ on it, but he grabbed it away before I could read anything on it."

"Well I'm interested to hear what he has to say when we all get back in September," Louis said.

"Me too," Justin agreed.

The train started moving, and Louis watched as the castle got smaller and smaller in the distance. Next year would be a good year. He could feel it.


	11. September Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 11: September 2016

Before Louis knew it, summer was over, and it was time to board the Hogwarts express and head back to school for another year. As Louis climbed the stairs into the train, he found himself feeling much less nervous than he had the previous year. This year, he wasn't walking into the unknown – he knew exactly what to expect. In fact, he looked forward to spending the year with Justin and the astronomy club once again. The only thing that worried Louis was that David Flint and the Slytherins were sure to be back again this year as well, and Louis feared what they might do.

Louis located Justin in the crowd still down on the train platform and waved at him, so that Justin would know which door of the train to board at. After saying goodbye to his parents, Justin headed over, tossed his trunk up to Louis and then climbed aboard himself.

"Good summer?" Louis asked conversationally as the two began the search for a compartment.

"Alright, you?" Justin returned.

"Pretty good," Louis replied. "Excited for astronomy club."

"I wonder if we'll get any new members," Justin mused.

"Of course we will," Louis replied. "Astronomy club's awesome, these first years would be foolish not to join."

"What I really want to know is what we're going to do this year," Justin pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Louis frowned.

"Well with the telescope project over and done with, what's left?" Justin wondered.

"Tons!" Louis exclaimed.

"Alright, give me an example," Justin replied. "And don't give me some generic thing we could study. What kind of project could we work on?"

"Well we could…" Louis hesitated. "Well I certainly don't know, I'm only starting my second year. I'm sure Ben has plans though, we'll just have to wait and see."

"He's not president yet," Justin pointed out.

"He will be," Louis replied confidently. "We'll have the vote as soon as we get back. It's not like anyone else would get it, he'll be the only seventh year in the club."

Before Justin could respond, Louis' younger cousins, James and Lucy, appeared at the door of the compartment.

"Hey guys, how are you?" Louis asked, opening the door and letting them in.

"We were hoping we could share your compartment," Lucy said hopefully. "There aren't any empty ones left."

"Oh sure," Louis nodded. He glanced over at Justin. "Justin, help me get their trunks up there." He hoped Justin wouldn't mind, but he remembered how nervous he'd been his first day and he'd hate to turn his cousins away and make them uncomfortable by having to sit in a compartment with strangers.

"Thanks," James said gratefully, bringing in the trunks.

"By the way, James, Lucy, this is my friend Justin Spinnet. Justin, these are my cousins Lucy Weasley and James Potter," Louis said, making the introductions. "James, Luce, we were about to go find the candy trolley, you want to come with us?" he offered, guessing that they would elect not to come. He wanted to finish his conversation with Justin and knew that they would probably just want to talk about what classes would be like and how the sorting would go.

"Thanks, but we're fine," Lucy replied. "We'll just sit here for a while."

"Suit yourself," Justin said. "But I'm not giving either of you any of my licorice wands." He rose and followed Louis out into the hall, catching onto what Louis was doing.

Out in the corridor, Louis set the pace, heading towards the front of the train, as the trolley lady usually worked her way from front to back.

"I just hope that Ben decides to prioritize astronomy club over whatever else he's got going on," Justin said, continuing their conversation.

"Hasn't he always?" Louis frowned.

Justin shrugged. "I worked with him quite a bit last year," he reminded Louis. "And all I can say is that we could've gotten our parts of the project done a lot quicker if he hadn't always been running off for this reason or that."

"Hmm," Louis pondered on that for a minute. "And here I thought Caleb was the least devoted member of the team, what with his preoccupation with Quidditch."

"But Caleb was never president," Justin pointed out.

"True," Louis had to agree.

As the boys passed through the doors from one car to the next, they suddenly found themselves confronted. It seemed the second year Slytherin boys were sitting in the first compartment and the biggest and bulkiest of the five was standing out in the corridor, handing the trunks in one by one to be thrown up onto the luggage racks.

"And what do we have here?" David Flint's voice sounded from inside the compartment. "Invite them in, Darian, do be polite."

The boy in the corridor, Darian Reed, jerked his head in the direction of the open compartment and Louis and Justin reluctantly entered.

"Nice to see you again," Louis spoke first, hoping that civility would get them out of this, whatever it was. "Good summer?"

"Splendid," Flint replied. "Why don't you take a seat so that we can discuss how this year is going to progress?"

When the Gryffindor boys hesitated, Flint nodded at Reed and suddenly Reed, who was significantly stronger than Louis and Justin put together, was shoving them onto the bench.

"We really do need to be getting back," Louis said nervously. "Our cousins – "

"Can make it an extra few minutes without you," Flint assured them. "Don't worry, this won't take long."

"Maybe we could discuss this at a later time – "

"No, I think now's the perfect time," Flint shook his head. "Wouldn't you boys agree?"

He looked around the compartment and received nods from all four of his cohorts.

"That settles it," Flint nodded, gesturing for Reed to bring in the final trunk and shut the door.

Louis gulped. What did Flint want to talk about and why did he want to do it now, here? Surely he wasn't going to do anything harmful to Louis or Justin while they were still on the train, with prefects patrolling the halls and all?

"Right," Flint began once the door was closed. "Now there seems to have been some sort of miscommunication last year as to the responsibilities of the various parties currently present, particularly in regards to schoolwork."

"Shouldn't it be – "

"Shut up, Justin," Louis hissed to his friend. There was no point in Justin saying anything at this point, as it would only serve to anger Flint further.

"You should listen to your friend," Flint said to Justin. "Now as I was saying. Schoolwork. Now, we Slytherins have quite the many various responsibilities. Social engagements and the like. The sorts of things a Gryffindor couldn't possibly understand. As a result, we often find ourselves lacking the time to get through all the menial assignments our dear Professors so often give us in homework."

"On the other hand, the two of you seem to have so much free time on your hands that you've elected to join the astronomy club, a club nobody in their right mind would join if they had any other options available. So, in order to occupy some of this free time you both seem so desperate to fill, whenever we five find ourselves inundated with work and we see fit to do so, we will be passing it over to you both."

"But wouldn't you rather do the assignments yourself?" Justin piped up. "How else will you learn the material?"

Next to Flint, one of the other boys, Anthony Pearle, scoffed.

"Only a Slytherin could possibly understand," Flint said, by way of explanation. "Do we have an understanding?"

Justin opened his mouth to protest and Louis elbowed him in the side. As terrible as the situation was, it would be even more terrible if they both had to miss the welcoming feast because they were in the hospital.

"We understand," Louis spoke for the both of them, eyeing Darian Reed and the fist he was continually making and unmaking. The boy looked like he was itching to punch one of them in the face and Louis was loathe to give him reason to.

"David, are you sure we should – " one of the other boys, Alec Roper, spoke up.

He was interrupted by the fifth member of the gang, Arthur Pritchard. "Shut your trap, Roper, we've talked about this."

Flint glared in Roper's direction for a moment and then turned back to Louis and Justin.

"Well if that's all settled, I suppose you're both free to go. I suspect we'll be seeing you both soon enough."

Darian Reed opened the door to the compartment and Louis practically shoved Justin out the door in his eagerness to get out of the Slytherin's compartment. It had been crowded and uncomfortable and nerve-wracking in there, and Louis' heart was beating erratically from fear.

Without another thought of finding the candy trolley, the two boys bolted back towards their own compartment, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the Slytherins whilst on a moving train.

Once they were a full car away, they slowed down to catch their breath.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts," Louis muttered sarcastically.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was a quiet one. Neither Louis nor Justin said much of anything, and simply listened to James and Lucy prattle on about their first-year problems. When they finally reached the castle, they parted ways, Louis and Justin heading to the carriages while James and Lucy made their way to the boats.

The sorting was predictable. Both James and Lucy were sorted into Gryffindor, something Louis was not at all surprised about. If anyway was going to have been sorted into a different house, it would have been Molly into Ravenclaw, and if that happened, it seemed doubtful to Louis that any of the Weasley cousins would break the mould.

That night, Louis tossed and turned, imagining how this year was going to play out. Last year, the Slytherins had only bothered him and Justin now and then, but from the sounds of their conversation earlier, it now seemed that they were going to be expecting Louis and Justin to do all their homework. Louis wondered if they would even have time for astronomy club this year, with all the extra work they would have to do.

The first week of classes wasn't particularly interesting. They were only doing review, and the basic assignments they were getting seemed to be easy enough that the Slytherins didn't bother either of the boys right away. By the end of the week, when the notice was posted for the date of the first astronomy club meeting, Louis was feeling much more optimistic.

"Is there even any point in voting?" Louis wondered as he and Justin headed to the astronomy club room. "Who else would even be eligible for president?"

"Greg and Arnold will both be in sixth year this year," Justin pointed out. "Maybe one of them will decide to run."

"I can't imagine anyone would vote for either of them," Louis frowned. "They've only ever been moderately interested in the club."

"Don't forget we need to elect a vice-president and project manager as well," Justin pointed out.

"Seems a lot of leadership for such a small club," Louis frowned. "Why not just have a president?"

Justin shrugged. "It's the way it is. When we're senior members, we can question it. For now, I think we just have to go with it."

When they arrived at the astronomy club room, it was like a reunion. Most of the members hadn't had a chance to reconnect with each other since returning to Hogwarts, so the first half hour mostly consisted of greetings and exchanges about how everyone's summer had been. With no official leadership in place yet, it took a while for everyone to get settled down and ready to address official business.

"Alright, now I realize I'm not president or anything," Ben said, calling everyone to order. "But as the only remaining member of last year's leadership, I think it's only right that I take the lead while we elect this year's new leadership team. At the beginning of next month, we'll be welcoming new members into the group, and we'll want to be ready and organized by then so that we can show them a good star-gazing time."

Louis found it exceptionally strange to be sitting in the astronomy room and to have Ben taking charge. The club didn't seem the same without Melody barking the orders and Caleb by her side. But then again, Louis supposed this was something he'd have to get used to. Members would be leaving them every year, and new ones would join. Membership was ever-changing. Everyone else had been through this before, and they'd managed just fine.

"So let's not prolong the inevitable," Ben declared. "I'm going to pass around three scraps of parchment, and on each one, each of you may write one of the three leadership positions, and the name of the person you think best suited for the position."

Everyone grew very silent as Ben passed around the bits of parchment. Louis wondered vaguely whether it was fair to have things done this way – it would be far too easy for Ben to simply vote for himself, after all. Then again, his would only be one vote, and he'd have to vote for the other positions as well. And it wasn't as though he could occupy all three positions.

Louis glanced down at his three bits of parchment and then looked around the room. Who did he want to vote for? Ben was the obvious choice for president, but just because he was the eldest in the room didn't necessarily mean he deserved it. On the other hand, neither Greg nor Arnold would make a good president, at least not in Louis' opinion, so he went ahead and put down Ben's name for the top position.

There were still two more positions available, and again, Louis found himself looking in the direction of Greg and Arnold. Logic would dictate that the two of them get the two supporting roles. But Louis just wasn't comfortable voting for either of them. He glanced at the remaining members of the group. If he was voting purely based on who was most committed to astronomy as a discipline, it was obvious who Louis should vote for. Trent was dedicated to pursuing astronomy as a career and was already talking about how he was going to apply to MAI when the time came. His mind made up, Louis put Trent's name down for project manager, and then put down Dorothy's name for vice-president, because she was very organized and Louis thought that would be a good quality for a vice-president to have.

Getting up out of his seat, Louis dropped his votes into a basket Ben had set up at the front of the room and then waited for the rest of the club to fill out their own ballots. When everyone had placed their votes, Ben cast a tallying spell on the basket, and the slips of paper started flying around the room, grouping themselves according to number of votes. A piece of chalk began to move of its own accord and began to write the results on the chalkboard.

For president… surprise, surprise, Ben won by a longshot.

For vice-president, the winner was Arnold. Louis shrugged when he saw this, figuring most had just voted for the eldest of the group. It wasn't a big deal to Louis really. Arnold would do just fine.

Finally, the chalk revealed the winner for project manager, and to Louis' surprise, it wasn't Greg as he'd expected. Though he was only a fourth year, and not even a senior yet, the position went to Trent Mitchell.

With the three names announced, everyone began to clap in congratulations of their new leaders. Arnold stood to join Ben at the front, while Trent just sat in his seat stunned. Greg looked a little put out, but Louis couldn't imagine he was that shocked. His interest in astronomy was as a hobby, while Trent's was a passion and a lifelong goal.

"Alright, well I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for putting their faith in me," Ben said, sounding like his speech had already been prepared. "I have lots of plans for our little club and I look forward to sharing them with my new leadership team and also with you all. I won't let you down."

Everyone turned to Arnold and he made an uncomfortable sound.

"Right, well I don't know what to say exactly except that I hope to help make this year our best yet!" he said. "Oh, and thanks for voting for me."

"Trent?" Ben prompted, looking at the final elected member.

Trent nodded and stood, slowly making his way to the front of the room.

"Right," he said. "Erm… first of all thank you to everyone who voted for me. I'm truly honored that you all have so much faith in me. I hope to live up to your expectations, but I hope you'll all bear with me as I try to navigate this new role. I hadn't expected this so early in my education, but I'm really excited to prove myself. Also this is going to look great on my application to MAI, so thanks for that as well."

Everyone laughed at that last comment and then the club was dismissed, so that the leaders could confer amongst themselves.

Heading back to the common room, Louis questioned Justin on who he'd voted for.

"Not Ben," Justin revealed. "Though I'm sure I was the only one. Did vote for Trent though, I think he deserves it."

"Who'd you pick for president then, if not Ben?" Louis wondered. "Surely not Arnold or Greg?"

Justin shook his head. "Kelsey," he replied. "Thought it might be nice to get a Gryffindor in leadership for a change."

Louis rolled his eyes. "Of course you did," he muttered.


	12. October Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 12: October 2016

Despite Justin's concerns, Ben was turning out to make a pretty decent astronomy club president. Trent was really stepping up as project manager, and even Arnold was doing well supporting the team as vice president. After much deliberation amongst themselves – though Louis predicted it was mostly Ben's idea – the astronomy club's project for the year was announced. They were going to be taking on a massive celestial mapping project for Professor Brunwell. It would be on the same scales as the kind of thing the people at MAI would do. Louis was extremely excited about it, as was Justin. And now that they were returning members, they would be given their own assignments, rather than shadowing older students.

Just like last year, there were three new students that joined the club. All were in first year, two boys from Ravenclaw and a girl from Hufflepuff. Ben, Arnold, and Trent were each assigned to one of them, as they were the members of leadership, though Greg was a little upset that he hadn't been assigned a shadow, given that he had been in the club longer than Trent.

Meanwhile in classes, they'd moved onto actual second-year material, which was significantly more challenging than first year material. First year had been all about the basics. In second year, things got more tricky.

In transfiguration, instead of going into basic theories of the various types of transfiguration, they were now diving in-depth into the first of them; animate to inanimate transfigurations. In history of magic, they were going to be spending the year going in-depth into the history of wizarding politics – a subject Louis knew was going to be dry and painful. In potions, the potions were getting more complicated, in herbology, the plants were getting more complicated, in charms, the spells were getting more complicated… the only course where Louis didn't feel completely inundated was astronomy, and that was only because of the loads of extra stuff he'd learned from the astronomy club last year.

Since term had begun, Flint and the Slytherins had mostly left Louis and Justin alone. There had been a few assignments that they'd forced the Gryffindor boys to complete for them, but they'd been straightforward enough and hadn't required as much rewording as if it had been an essay. It was still early in the year though, and Louis remained on edge.

The biggest downside, at least for Louis, was that Justin seemed to have renewed his interest in Dominique over the summer and now spent much of his time staring at her across crowded rooms.

"She's beautiful," Justin said dreamily. "She's like the moon."

"The moon?" Louis frowned. "What about the sun? Don't guys like you usually say girls shine like the sun?" He was being sarcastic of course, he didn't want Justin to compare Dominique to the sun either.

"No, Dominique doesn't shine – well she does, but it's more than that. She glows. Like the moon," Justin replied.

Louis rolled his eyes. "The moon doesn't glow. It reflects light from other things. So basically, you're saying that Domi doesn't have any of her own light and has to reflect other people's light?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Justin insisted, shaking his head. He was making very little sense. "I'm saying she glows. The sun gives out a big burst of light and then one day when it explodes, all that light will be gone. The moon will always be there, giving off a softer, steadier light. Dominique is like that."

"Well I still think you're crazy," Louis declared. "And that you should focus on your schoolwork and the astronomy club."

Justin shook his head. "I've decided," he announced.

Louis sighed. "Decided what?"

"I'm going to meet her. I'm going to introduce myself to her."

"What? Why?" Louis practically whined.

"Because I _have_ to know her," Justin insisted. "I have to make sure that she knows me."

"She knows you," Louis muttered. "I've mentioned you before."

"It's different," Justin shook his head. "She has to know me as me, not as your friend."

"I'm sure you realize that I'm completely against this endeavor?" Louis questioned.

Justin nodded. "Yes, and I'll do it without your help, thank you very much."

"Well alright then," Louis shrugged. "I suppose I can't stop you. Though I wish you wouldn't."

LlLlLlLlLlL

Over the next week, Justin continually tried to initiate a meeting between himself and Dominique. He tried catching her on her own in the Great Hall, but she was always with one of her friends. He tried waiting for her to be alone in the common room, but she would always go up to her dorm, where Justin couldn't follow. He tried to convince Louis to find out her class schedule so that he could run into her coming out of a class, but Louis refused to get involved, maintaining that he thought it was weird for him.

"That's it," Justin declared one afternoon. "There's nothing else for it."

"Nothing else for what?" Louis frowned.

"I'm going to have to stalk her."

"Who? Dominique?" Louis asked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"She's never alone in the common places, you won't tell me her class schedule. What else am I supposed to do?" Justin insisted.

"Give up?" Louis suggested, almost pleadingly.

"No," Justin shook his head. "I'll just have to follow her for a time. Make note of her movements. Figure out where she goes."

"You're coming across more than a little creepy, you know," Louis pointed out.

"I'm not being creepy," Justin dismissed the thought. "I'm being diligent. I'll just map out her day-to-day movements and then isolate the times she's most likely to be on her own."

"Why can't you introduce yourself to here with Brooke or Miles around?" Louis asked, naming the two friends that were most often surrounding Dominique.

"I need to make an impression," Justin explained. "I can't do that if she's got her friends with her, she'll have split attention."

Louis rolled his eyes, but didn't press the point any more. If Justin wanted to become a stalker, that was fine. At least Louis knew he had relatively innocent intentions.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The following week was even weirder for Louis. Justin awoke extra early, so that he could dress and get down to the common room before Dominique left for the day. He would lurk in a corner and then follow her down to the Great Hall, where he would perch at the far end of the Gryffindor table and make mote of who she was eating with. When Louis would eventually make his way down and join his friend, Justin's attention was always elsewhere, and Louis ended up making conversation with himself and his toast.

As soon as Dominique was finished breakfast, Justin would follow her to her first class and make note of that one as well. Then he would bolt off to his own class, where Louis would be saving him a seat – though Louis wasn't sure why he kept doing his friend this courtesy when he was stalking his sister. Justin was almost always late and got yelled at more than a few times by their professors.

After first period, Justin would race back to the classroom Dominique had had her first lesson in, in the hopes that she would still be there. If she wasn't, he'd find someone else in her year and follow them in the hopes that they would lead him to where Dominique was. Usually this tactic worked, but it meant that Justin was late to almost all his classes, not just first period.

At lunch, if Justin didn't get to the end of Dominique's last morning class in time, he would race to the Great Hall to catch up with her and then perch at the end of the table, watching her some more. When she and her friends would get up, he would follow them around the school until afternoon classes began. Then the whole cycle that had taken place in the morning would start all over again. And after classes were over, Justin would follow her all around the school – to the library, to the common room, to the Quidditch pitch… And every one of her movements got tracked on a more and more weathered-looking piece of parchment.

"Since when does Dominique like Quidditch?" Louis frowned, glancing at Justin's parchment one evening. Dominique had already gone up to bed, which left Louis with a rare instance where he could command all of Justin's attention.

"I'm just reporting the facts," Justin declared. "And the fact is that she goes to the Quidditch pitch regularly to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's practice."

"I mean, her friends are on the team," Louis noted, more to himself than to Justin. "I suppose it makes sense."

"I've made my decision," Justin declared then.

"Your decision?" Louis frowned.

"Of when I'm going to officially meet Dominique," Justin clarified.

"Oh Merlin," Louis groaned. "Alright, let's hear it."

"I'm going to talk to her at the next Gryffindor Quidditch practice," Justin declared. "It's the best opportunity because all her friends will be flying around and she'll be sitting alone."

"And you've observed this already?" Louis asked.

Justin nodded.

"And you didn't think to just introduce yourself then, instead of writing about it on your creepy parchment?" Louis asked, not understanding the logic. If he'd come across Dominique alone, wouldn't that have been his chance?

Justin shook his head. "No, I wasn't prepared then," he said. "I'll be prepared this time."

"Prepared?" Louis repeated as a question. "What do you need to prepare?"

"Myself," Justin replied. "You just don't understand."

"You're right," Louis nodded. "I don't."

LlLlLlLlLlL

So when the next Gryffindor Quidditch practice came around, Justin headed down to the pitch and Louis remained back in the castle working on a herbology assignment for Arthur Pritchard of Slytherin. Honestly, Louis thought the whole endeavor was a waste of time. Dominque was not going to be interested in Justin. The most she would be was slightly flattered, but it would end there. What Justin was looking for, Louis couldn't imagine, and he didn't want to try.

When Justin returned from his endeavor, Louis immediately looked up to gauge his friend's emotions. He's expected disappointment, maybe some anger, if Dominique had promptly rejected him, but instead he seemed happy and excited.

"How'd it go?" Louis asked nervously.

"Great," Justin smiled, taking a seat. "Looks like I'm joining the Quidditch team."

"Excuse me?" Louis frowned, sure he'd heard wrong.

"Well not this year, obviously," Justin replied. "This year's team has already been chosen, and I'm terrible at Quidditch. But next year, next year I'll join."

"Didn't you just say you're terrible at Quidditch?" Louis frowned. "How do you expect to make the team?"

"How does anyone?" Justin challenged Louis. "I'll practice. I'll train really hard all of this year so that next year I'll be ready."

"Have you thought about which position you'll play?" Louis asked, wondering how thought-out this new plan was.

"Chaser," Justin declared. "The only seventh year on the team is a chaser, and I'll have an easier time replacing a graduated student than trying to usurp a current player. Plus there are three chaser slots and only two beaters and one seeker and keeper, so my chances are inevitably better."

"Okay," Louis said slowly. It did seem like Justin had put some thought into this, but Louis was still missing the why of it all. "And what's brought this on?"

"Dominique likes Quidditch players," Justin declared. "It's not about the game, it's about the players. So I told her I was one, and that I would be on the team next year."

Louis dropped his head into his hands and moaned. "Why would you…? What were you…? Seriously Justin?"

"What?" Justin asked innocently. "I had to make an impression. If I'm a Quidditch player, she'll remember me. If I'm just some uninteresting kid, she'll never think twice about me."

"And you're sure you want to do this?" Louis asked. "Join the Quidditch team? It'll be a lot of work. You might not have time to be in the astronomy club anymore if you do this."

"We all have to pay a price for love," Justin said in a weird voice.

"Please don't say things like that," Louis shook his head, as if to shake the memory of the moment out of it. "You don't love Dominique, you have a silly crush."

"It's not silly," Justin insisted seriously.

"Fine," Louis gave in. "You have a very real crush. But that's all it is."

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next afternoon, Justin because his new training regimen. For fun, Louis came down to the pitch with him and set himself up with his homework in the stands. He was looking forward to Justin realizing how terrible an idea this was.

Since Justin didn't have a broom of his own, he borrowed one of the school brooms. He took a battered looking Cleansweep from the broom shed and then mounted it and started flying circles around the pitch.

He did fine while he was just doing slow circles, but as soon as Justin tried to amp up the speed, he toppled off the broom and landed on the ground. Louis chuckled but tried to hide it. As much as he didn't approve of Justin's endeavor, he didn't want to outright make fun of him.

It took a while, but Justin eventually became comfortable going fast, and started to increase his altitude. He attempted a few dips and dives and found himself falling off his broom some more, only now his falls were even more violent because he was falling from higher up. Soon, Louis started cringing every time Justin fell, because he could only imagine the bruises his friend was going to have later on.

Mercifully, Justin's individual practice had to come to an end when the Hufflepuff team arrived for their scheduled practice. Louis was pretty sure he could see a smile on Justin's face when he learned he would have to relinquish the pitch.

As soon as Justin was changed and his broom returned to the broom shed, Louis met him down on the field.

"So how was that?" Louis asked, trying not to be too judgemental.

"It was a good first attempt," Justin said, though Louis could hear the strain in his voice.

"First attempt? So you're still intending on keeping up with this?"

"Of course," Justin nodded. "I can't give up after only one practice. I'll get better."

They started heading up to the castle, and Louis realized that Justin was limping and clutching one arm.

"Justin, you're not okay," Louis pointed out. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No, I'm fine," Justin insisted. "I just need to rest a bit. Sleep it off. I'll be fine in the morning."

Louis shook his head. He thought Justin was crazy, but if Justin was this dedicated, Louis wouldn't be able to dissuade him. He'd just have to wait for Justin to give up on his own.

Luckily, for both their sakes, Louis didn't have to wait long. The following day, Justin headed down to the pitch for another practice. Louis decided not to watch this one. The one the previous day had been painful enough, and it was difficult to do homework from the stands. So Louis stayed behind in the library while Justin headed off to punish himself some more. About an hour later, Justin appeared in the library, battered and bruised and looking completely defeated.

"I don't think I can join the Quidditch team," he said. "I don't think I can do this."

"Are you ready to see Madam Eldridge?" Louis asked.

Justin nodded sadly.

Madam Eldridge was the opposite of impressed.

"What have you done to yourself?" she demanded. "Thrown yourself from the window of the Charms classroom?"

"No," Justin shook his head. "I was only practicing Quidditch, down at the pitch."

"And I suppose you're not actually on the Quidditch team?" Madam Eldridge questioned. "And had no supervision?"

Justin shook his head.

"And I suppose you're not the best flier the world's ever known?" she added.

Justin looked down in shame.

Madam Eldridge sighed. "Alright, hop up on this bed here and I'll give you a potion for the bruises. They should be all healed up within the hour and then you'll be good to go."

She went back into her office to locate the potion Justin needed and to grab the paperwork she had to fill out for every patient that walked through her doors. While she was gone, Louis took the opportunity to speak to Justin privately.

"So is it over now? All this nonsense?"

"If you mean the Quidditch stuff, then yes," Justin nodded. "I already told you that."

"I meant the nonsense with Dominique," Louis clarified.

"Oh," Justin muttered. "Well then no."

"What do you mean no?" Louis frowned. "If you can't play Quidditch, then what are you going to try next?"

"I'm not going to try anything next," Justin said. "If this has taught me anything, it's that I'm not going to change who I am for some girl. But I still really like your sister, so if I get more chances to talk to her I'm going to take them. We'll see if it ever amounts to anything."

Louis sighed. Having his best friend obsessed with his sister wasn't ideal, but this was better than what he'd been dealing with for the better part of the month, so he'd take it. "Alright," he said. "I'm just glad you're not going to go on with the stalking."

"No, I'm done with that too," Justin agreed. "It was too much. These things have to happen naturally. And I've got time. She's only in fourth year. I've got almost four years to make an impression."


	13. November Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 13: November 2016

"Weasley! Spinnet!"

Louis stopped in his tracks and groaned silently before turning around to face David Flint and the others.

"What can we do for you today, Flint?" Louis asked as politely as he could. If he was being honest, he was getting fed up with Flint constantly coming to him and Justin with assignments and essays they were supposed to be doing themselves. Louis had enough to do without the Slytherins' homework. And while sometimes it was only Flint's homework they had to add to their own, sometimes it was all five Slytherins. But there was nothing he could do, unless he wanted Flint to break his arm and send him to the hospital wing.

"That transfiguration essay that Tonks just set," Flint said. "We aren't going to have time to write it."

"Any of you?" Justin asked.

"Nope," Flint shook his head. "We've got some other stuff on our plate. We'll expect our essay no later than Thursday, so we'll have time to recopy them. Bring them with you to Herbology, it's our last class."

Before either Louis or Justin could respond to Flint, he'd gone on his way, the rest of the Slytherins following behind. Louis turned to Justin with a defeated look.

"Well, I guess we'd better get started," he said. They'd been planning on doing some extra-curricular reading on astronomy. Ben had recommended a few really good books that he thought they'd enjoy. But now it looked like the rest of their week would be consumed by transfiguration.

"This isn't fair," Justin complained as they headed to the library. "We shouldn't have to put up with this."

"It's not like we can resist them," Louis pointed out. "There's five of them and two of us. And some of them are huge. No offence, but you're basically a twig, and I'm not much better off."

"But we're wizards," Justin muttered. "These things aren't supposed to matter for us. We're not Muggles."

"Well they do matter," Louis declared matter-of-factly. They'd arrived in the library and he began to peruse the transfiguration section in the hopes that a new title might jump out at him that would contain some new information he could throw into a paper or two so that they wouldn't look like they'd been written by the same person. "Because the Slytherins don't fight with magic, they fight with strength."

"Yeah, but we don't have to," Justin replied. Suddenly his face changed, as though he'd just had a brilliant idea. "Hey – we don't have to."

"You're going to have to explain a bit more," Louis said, turning away from the shelf he was skimming and moving on to the next.

"We're wizards," Justin said, by way of explanation.

"Gee thanks, I'd forgotten," Louis practically rolled his eyes.

"No, just listen," Justin insisted. "The Slytherins always use force to get us to do what they want. But what if they couldn't get to us? What if we held them off with magic? Then they wouldn't be able to control us anymore."

This caught Louis' attention and he looked away from the transfiguration shelves and considered Justin's idea properly.

"So you're saying, if we practiced our defensive magic, we could defend ourselves against the Slytherins and hold them off so that they couldn't threaten us with physical force anymore?" Louis summarized.

"Exactly," Justin nodded enthusiastically. "Don't you see? It's perfect. And not only do we get the Slytherins off our backs, but we'll probably get a really good mark in defense if we practice it a lot."

"That's a great idea!" Louis exclaimed, suddenly imagining what it would be like to only do his homework once. "I'm in."

With that decided, the boys switched from searching for transfiguration books to searching for defence books. They would need some more advanced spells than what they'd been learning in class so far. Tickling hexes and trip jinxes would only get them so far. What they really needed were protection and barrier spells that would keep the Slytherins at bay.

They found a book on shield charms that looked promising. The only problem was, it was fourth year level magic, and they were only in second year. Louis was convinced though that their determination would outweigh the difficulty and the boys agreed to get started on it the very next day.

LlLlLlLlLlL

"This will have to do," Justin declared the following afternoon. They'd spent almost an hour wandering around the castle looking for a decent space where they could practice their shield charms, and so far, all they could find were abandoned classrooms. This one was particularly spacious though, so they decided to just settle in and get started.

After two hours of practice though, Louis was still unable to block Justin's knockback jinx, and Justin had yet to prevent himself being hit with Louis' disarming spell.

"Looks like this is going to take longer than we'd thought," Louis pointed out. "I think we might have to write those transfiguration essays after all."

"What are you talking about?" Justin demanded. "The whole reason we're doing this is so that we don't have to do that."

"I only mean just this one time," Louis explained himself. "Eventually we won't have to do the Slytherins' homework anymore, but until we can perform the protection magic, we have to protect ourselves in other ways."

Justin saw Louis' point, and so reluctantly, the boys packed up and headed to the library to write the essays that were now expected in less than two days' time.

The essays were rushed and sloppy, but Louis and Justin didn't really care at this point. Soon it wouldn't matter any more, and honestly, five extra essays in two days would be a lot for anyone – except maybe Molly.

As soon as they finished with the transfiguration essays though, the boys were back at it in the abandoned classroom, working on their shield charms. If anything, they were determined that these transfiguration essays would be the last of the Slytherins' homework that they ever had to do.

They'd got to the point where they could get the shield charm working part of the time. Louis' shield had a tendency to flicker in and out of existence, and Justin's only blocked spells coming at him from the left side. But they remainder determined and continued to practice and to read up on the spells in their spare time.

As a result of all the time they were devoting to this new project, Louis and Justin started to fall behind in their other endeavors. One such thing that they suddenly had less and less time for was astronomy club.

"Is everything alright?" Kelsey asked them one day in the common room. "We haven't seen either of you at astronomy club at all this week. If something's going on, you can talk to us about it."

"We're fine," Justin assured her. "We just need to take care of this one thing, and then we'll be back full-force, you'll see."

Kelsey seemed unconvinced by the answer, but let it be. If Louis and Justin didn't want to share, she wouldn't force them.

On their side of things, Louis and Justin were extremely disappointed that they'd had to miss their astronomy club meetings. They'd wanted to go, but they were getting anxious. The Slytherins would soon be coming to them with another assignment they didn't want to do – Louis and Justin knew their patterns – and they wanted to be ready when the time came. They didn't want to get saddled with any more work that wasn't theirs. So, every spare moment they had was spent training.

By the end of the second week, the boys had improved enough that they were feeling extremely confident about being able to hold the Slytherins off. Louis' shield was now holding steady and Justin's had expanded to cover the full space in front of him. They were able to hold off offensive spells and to practically test their real purpose, Louis and Justin had taken it in turns to run at each other and try to physically break through the barriers. To their delight, the shields had held, and they felt ready.

They didn't have to wait long for another confrontation with the Slytherins. It happened Friday afternoon, after transfiguration, when the essays from the week before were returned. Apparently, the Slytherins hadn't done so well, the best grade being an 'A' and most being fails. They were clearly not happy and at the first opportunity they had, they cornered Louis and Justin in an empty corridor.

"What do you call this?" Flint demanded, waving his 'D' in Louis' face. It didn't matter that Justin had written that particular essay, Flint was angry and would take it out on both of them.

"We're very sorry," Justin apologized. "We were distracted and – "

"When we ask you to write our essays, we expect good results," Flint shouted. "If we'd wanted 'D's', we could have just scribbled a bunch of words on a piece of parchment ourselves and handed that in."

"Well maybe you should've," Justin said. He sounded brave, but Louis could hear the waver in his voice. "Maybe if you want good grades, you should do the assignments yourselves. I mean, isn't that the only way to ensure it's done the way you want?"

"I thought I'd made it clear what would happen to the two of you if things like this ever happened again," Flint said, referring to the time the Slytherins had gotten less than optimal grades on a history of magic essay that Louis and Justin had written for them. "I thought that you understood the consequences of sub-par work. Apparently, we'll have to instill that lesson in you both properly."

Flint made a gesture to his gang, and then Darian Reed and Anthony Pearle stepped forward menacingly.

Panicking, Louis turned to flee, but found that he and Justin had been trapped into a corner with no escape options. Next to him, Justin made a face and reached into his robes, and Louis remembered the plan. He could do this. They'd prepared for this.

Heart racing, Louis slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wand, gripping it tightly. Justin was doing the same and taking a deep breath, Louis prepared to cast the shield charm.

"Oh look at this," Flint cried then, looking back and forth from Louis' wand to Justin's and back again. "You think you can cast a little spell and scare us away? You really think it'll be that easy? I don't think so."

And before Louis knew it, Reed had pounced on him, pinning him to the wall behind and holding his wrist down with more force than Louis could handle. His wrist felt like it was going to fall off, and then Reed's hand shifted so that he was no longer squeezing his wrist, but instead wrestling the wand out of his hand.

There was nothing Louis could do. His wrist was already hurting from being squeezed so hard, and he was significantly weaker than Reed. He relinquished his hold on his wand and watched as Reed threw it as far away as he could, down the corridor. Louis could hear it clatter as it landed, and then a second clatter as Justin's wand joined his.

"Give them a reminder of what happens when they try to mess with us," Flint ordered.

Louis struggled against Reed, but it was no use. The boy was too big and too strong and Louis was too weak and too small. He knew it was coming before it happened, but still it in no way prepared him for the pain that followed. Reed curled his hand into a fist and pulled it back, just enough to give himself room for a good swing. Then he let it go and pummeled Louis in the stomach, causing him to double over, coughing and spluttering. A second punch followed the first, and now Louis was no longer able to hold himself up against the wall. Reed stepped back and Louis doubled over, desperately gasping for breath.

"And again."

Louis could barely hear Flint's voice now, because his ears were ringing. As if out of nowhere, a foot came as him, hitting him right where the punches had landed, and Louis went flying back into the wall, hitting it. He landed on his back on the floor, one arm awkwardly underneath him and the other stretched out in the Slytherins' direction. He couldn't move, could barely breathe, and certainly couldn't speak.

"That should do it," Flint declared then, apparently satisfied with the damage they'd done. "And don't forget boys, if you report this, it'll only get worse."

Louis couldn't do much more than swallow as the Slytherins began to retreat. Almost as an afterthought, Flint stepped closer to Louis, raised his foot above his outstretched hand, and stomped down on it hard. Louis cried out and his hand curled in on itself in pain. Laughing in satisfaction, Flint followed the other Slytherins back down the corridor to join the rest of the school, leaving Louis and Justin convalescing on the floor.

It was a long time before Louis regained enough strength to pull himself into a seated position and scoot his way across the floor to grab his and Justin's wands. Justin was still splayed out across the floor, unmoving, and Louis was honestly more worried about his friend than himself. At least Louis was moving.

Every movement was pain like Louis had never felt. He tried to cast a numbing spell on his stomach, but nothing happened. It had been a long shot anyway. For pain this severe, he would need a lot more power and experience to cast a successful numbing spell.

He scooted over to Justin and gently nudged his shoulder. Justin let out a soft moan, but did start to turn over onto his side, so Louis took that as a good sign, and leaned back against the wall for a bit to rest from all the exertion.

When it started to get dark and nobody had come and found them yet, Louis knew that they were going to have to get up on their own. They couldn't be caught out after curfew, even in this state. Because they wouldn't be able to explain how they'd come to be immobile at the end of a rarely used corridor, they'd be unable to explain why they didn't deserve detentions and the loss of house points. So Louis slowly started to curl his legs towards him and put weight on them little by little in an attempt to get into a standing position.

Justin was also making progress. He'd managed to get into a seated position, and at least both his hands were unharmed, unlike Louis who had kept his injured hand clutched in a fist and pressed up against his chest this whole time.

The boys eventually made it to a standing position and slowly stumbled their way back to the common room. They agreed that they wouldn't tell anyone what had happened to them. They didn't want to risk the Slytherins coming back with worse. If anything, it was clear that all the practice they'd put into the shield charms had been a complete and utter waste.

"You'll have to get Eldridge to take a look at that hand," Justin pointed out once they were up in their dorm and climbing into bed. "She'll have to set it, or it won't heal right."

"I supposed I could tell her I dropped something heavy on it," Louis said thoughtfully. "Maybe we were trying to move furniture around the dorm or something."

"Whatever you tell her, you should go sooner than later," Justin declared.

Louis shook his head. "Not until I can hide my other injuries," he said. "I can't afford to have her notice that anything else is wrong."

"But your hand won't set right," Justin protested. "She'll have to rebreak it."

"So be it," Louis shrugged resignedly. "This is just how it has to be. We'll never be able to overpower them."

"Unless…" Justin's voice suddenly took on a similar quality to when he'd thought of the protection magic idea.

"Oh no, I'm not listening to any more of your brilliant ideas," Louis muttered, pulling his blanket over himself and getting as comfortable as he was able under the circumstances.

"Just hear me out," Justin insisted. "We learned the defensive magic as a way of holding the Slytherins off, but we didn't factor in the possibility that they'd attack faster than we could cast, and that we'd lose our advantage."

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Louis muttered.

"Just listen," Justin insisted. "The Slytherins always win because they're so strong and we're so weak. But what if we were strong too?"

"But we're not," Louis muttered, exhausted. "Just give it up Louis, it's over."

"No," Louis shook his head. "We don't have to be stronger than them, we just have to get a little stronger so that we can hold our own _until_ we have a chance to cast a spell. We have to be strong enough to not let them get our wands away from us."

"And how to you propose we do that?" Louis demanded.

"Professor Derlid teaches a physical defence unit to the third years," Justin replied. "I think if we ask him, he'll teach us a year early."

"And how are we supposed to explain our sudden interest in learning physical defence?" Louis wondered.

Justin shrugged. "We can just say we want to learn more," he said. "I don't know, we can work it out when we talk to him, the point is, isn't it worth a shot? All we have to do is learn enough to be able to use their own strength against them, to get them off us, so that we have time to intervene with magic."

"Or we could just keep doing their assignments and not get beat up," Louis suggested.

"You're fooling yourself if you think that's going to work," Justin said. "Flint'll find reasons to beat on us, whether we obey him or not. Just to keep us in line, just to keep reminding us who's in charge. The only way is to fight back."

"I'm tired," Louis muttered. He didn't want to be thinking about any of this, he just wanted to sleep.

"Alright," Justin conceded. "We'll talk more in the morning. Once we've slept the worst of it off."


	14. December Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 14: December 2016

It took some convincing, but eventually Louis came to realize that Justin was right. If they were going to stand any chance of holding their own against the Slytherins, they had to learn some physical defence. As soon as the boys had healed, they went straight to Professor Derlid's classroom to ask for help.

"Physical defence?" Professor Derlid repeated their request. "But I don't usually teach that until third year."

"We know," Justin said. "We just thought we'd get a head start on next year."

"Well, if I'm being perfectly honest boys, you could use some extra work on this year's material before you go starting on next year's. Your body-bind curses, for example, still leave something to be desired," Derlid replied.

Louis allowed himself a moment to be a little offended. He'd thought he'd been doing pretty well with the full body-bind curse. But he shook that from his mind as he had more important things to worry about. "We just feel that learning the physical defence now would help us when we practice duelling in class," Louis claimed. "Make us more well-rounded."

"But we aren't even having full-contact duels yet," Professor Derlid frowned. "Nobody goes anywhere, the combatants stay on opposite sides of the room and shoot spells at each other."

"Please Professor Derlid," Justin pleaded. "This is really important to us."

Their defence professor considered them a moment and then gave in.

"Alright," he agreed. "I still think you should be worrying about other parts of the course, but if you're determined then I won't stand in your way. We'll start on Saturday morning, bright and early. Eat a decent breakfast before you arrive."

LlLlLlLlLlL

That Saturday, Louis awoke both nervous and excited. He honestly didn't know what to expect from the training, but he knew it was going to be hard – everything they did in defence was hard, and Professor Derlid never went easy on them. That was a good thing though. The Slytherins wouldn't go easy on them, and Louis and Justin needed to be prepared.

At breakfast, Louis forced himself to eat some eggs and sausages, knowing that they would sustain him better than toast and pancakes would. Justin took the opposite approach, piling his plate full of rich French toast and decadent syrup. Louis warned Justin that he was going to throw up if he ate like that, but Justin ignored him.

When they arrived at the defence classroom, it had been completely transformed. The desks and chairs were gone, and in their place were all sorts of equipment, none of which Louis had any idea the purpose of. Professor Derlid met them at the door and motioned that they were to leave the classroom.

"We're not starting in here," he declared. "We start outside."

"But it's freezing!" Justin exclaimed. "We didn't bring our cloaks or our scarves or anything."

In fact, the boys had dressed as light as possible, anticipating that they would be sweating before long.

"You don't need your cloaks," Professor Derlid replied. "You'll warm up quickly enough."

The came to the Entrance Hall and Professor Derlid marched the boys outside to the grounds.

"Alright, I want you boys to run five laps of the school," he declared. "Now remember, this isn't a race. You don't score any better if you finish first, but you score less if you have to stop, so pace yourselves. And… begin."

Without any time to prepare himself, Louis suddenly found his legs pumping forward and his body raced to catch up. Justin wasn't far behind and seemed similarly disoriented. What good was this? Why did they need to practice running? If the Slytherins would leave the option for running away, obviously they would have taken it before now, instead of letting them beat the stuffing out of them. But running was never an option. They always managed to get cornered against a wall somehow.

There was no point arguing with Professor Derlid though. They would have to undergo his full training regimen, unless they wanted to explain the specifics of why they needed to train in the first place. Which would only get the Slytherins in trouble and lead to more pain for Louis and Justin further down the line.

Louis rounded the final corner of the castle and completed his first lap of the school. He was panting pretty hard and his throat was on fire. A nice glass of water wouldn't be completely unwelcome. But Professor Derlid was still standing there by the Entrance Hall doors and Louis knew he couldn't stop.

Somewhere along the line, Justin had fallen behind. Louis could no longer see him when he looked over his shoulder. He only hoped his friend was doing alright.

Louis rounded another corner and passed by the greenhouses. There was a girl inside who he recognized as one of Victoire's roommates, though he couldn't remember the name. She waved merrily at him, but Louis couldn't manage to lift his own arm to wave back. He just pushed forward, rounding the next corner, and wished the castle wasn't so big.

When Louis started his third lap, his legs were starting to feel like wobbly noodles. He wasn't sure he was going to make it much further, let alone another three full laps. With Derlid's eyes on him though, he pushed himself until he rounded the next corner and then slowed to a walk as he attempted to regain his breath.

As he rounded yet another familiar corner of the castle, Louis stumbled across a surprising sight. Justin was doubled over on the ground and a pile of vomit lay at his feet.

"Justin, are you alright?" Louis asked, worried.

"Shouldn't have had the French toast for breakfast," Justin replied regretfully. "Just need a minute, I'll be alright."

"We should tell Derlid this is too much," Louis said. "We have to work up to things like this. He can't just throw us in the deep end."

"At least this is good practice for what's waiting for us when we get to third year," Justin pointed out, righting himself and smoothing out his robes. He sidestepped around the vomit, leaving it there since neither boy could yet perform a vanishing spell.

"True," Louis agreed, falling into step next to his friend as they completed what was Louis' third lap and Justin's second. "I still think we should be getting to the more practical stuff. Strength training and the like."

Justin agreed, so when they arrived at the Entrance Hall doors again, they came to a stop in front of their professor.

"You haven't finished your laps yet," he said. "Get back out there."

"We can't," Justin insisted. "It's too much, we don't have the stamina yet."

Professor Derlid considered them for a moment. "You really are a couple of weaklings, aren't you?" he observed.

"Hey – " Louis protested, but Justin hushed him up. Professor Derlid did have a point, after all. That was the whole reason they were here.

"Alright, we'll work up to the five laps," Professor Derlid declared. "Let's head back up to the classroom and try some other stuff."

The walk up to the fifth floor was agony after all the running, but Louis and Justin made it eventually. Professor Derlid offered them some water, and they gulped it down like they were dying in a desert.

After they'd had their drink, Professor Derlid led them through what he called a 'warm-up'. He made them do push-ups, and sit-ups, and jumping jacks, and lunges, and all sorts of other things they'd never done before. It was hard, and they had to stop more than a few times for more water.

Next Professor Derlid introduced them to weight training. "Those spaghetti arms are going to need some major help," he declared, looking judgementally at both Louis' and Justin's skinny arms. "We'll start with the small ones and work our way up."

He handed each a set of weights that weren't particularly heavy. Louis almost insisted that he could lift heavier, but stopped himself. He didn't want to overdo anything, and he had no idea what weight lifting was going to be like.

It was harder than he'd expected. By the end of the set, his arms really did feel like spaghetti and he practically dropped the weights on the floor when he was done.

"Well that does it for today, I think," Professor Derlid declared.

Louis was both relieved and confused.

"What about all the other equipment?" he asked, looking around the room.

"You're not ready for that yet," Professor Derlid replied. "When you can run five laps around the school, maybe I'll consider letting you use it."

Louis nodded. In truth, he was glad the workout was done for the day. He almost felt worse than the day Darian Reed had continually punched him in the stomach. His whole body ached and his muscles were all sore.

"I'll expect you boys both back here tomorrow morning, right after breakfast," Professor Derlid declared. "For our second training session."

"Tomorrow?" Justin cried, overwhelmed. "But we just got finished with today."

"These things have to be an everyday practice, or you'll never get anywhere," Professor Derlid replied. "We'll train again tomorrow, and the next day, and every day until you leave for the Christmas holidays. And when you get back in January, we'll keep on training. This isn't the sort of thing you learn and then ignore. You have to keep it up or you lose it."

Louis groaned. This was turning into a lot more work than he'd bargained for.

LlLlLlLlLlL

By the time the Christmas holidays rolled around, Louis was feeling a lot better about Professor Derlid's training regimen. The laps were getting easier – he'd made it up to four laps already and was confident he'd be able to do five soon. He gone up a level with his weights, which meant his arms were getting stronger. Professor Derlid had even consented to teaching the boys about a few of the other pieces of equipment around the classroom and got them doing some different exercises.

One matter on which Professor Derlid had been very clear – Louis and Justin were under no circumstances to slack on their training while they were home for the holidays. He expected them to run their laps every day, and to do all the exercises they could do without his specialized equipment. Otherwise, they would regress, and they'd have to start from the beginning again. And now that he was making some real progress, Louis didn't want that.

So every morning, Louis would rise well before the rest of his family, put on some good running clothes, and run up and down the beach until he couldn't run anymore. Then he'd go back up to his room to do his push-ups and sit-ups and all the rest, and only after would he head downstairs to join his family for breakfast.

He knew his parents and sisters saw a difference in him – how could they not? They gave him questioning looks whenever they caught him returning from his morning runs and they exchanged looks with each other a lot.

Eventually, one morning, just as Louis was finishing up his exercises, his father came to his bedroom door and knocked softly.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

Louis picked himself up off the floor and took a long drink of water from the glass he kept on his bedside table. "Sure," he agreed, flopping down on his bed.

Bill came in and pulled Louis' desk chair out from the desk and turned it around so that he was facing Louis.

"Son… I don't know how to say this exactly… we're all just a little… confused," Bill said.

"Confused?" Louis frowned. "About what?"

"All this training," Bill said. "What's it for?"

"Defence against the dark arts," Louis replied. "Physical defence training."

Bill looked unconvinced by this. "Isn't that usually a third-year unit?" he asked. "Besides that, Victoire and Dominique never came home acting like you are when they went through it."

"I guess I'm just taking it more seriously than they did," Louis replied.

"And that begs the question… why?" Bill wondered. "And why are you learning it a year early?"

Louis shrugged. "Justin and I asked Professor Derlid to teach us," he said. "We wanted to improve our defence grades and thought this would be a good way to do it."

"It looks to me like this is about more than your defence grades," Bill replied. "I don't even see you get this devoted to something when it's related to astronomy."

"That's because astronomy happens mostly in my room on paper," Louis pointed out. "This is just a lot more obvious, because I'm out there running."

"You don't have to tell me what's going on if you don't want to," Bill declared. "But I wish you would. It's obvious this is more than grades."

Louis shrugged, deciding to act as if he had no idea what his father was talking about. "If that's what you think," he said. "Listen, I'm pretty hungry. Can I go down to breakfast now?"

"Of course," Bill nodded, getting up and following Louis out of the bedroom. "Just… well. Never mind."

LlLlLlLlLlL

After his conversation with his father, Louis had a lot to think about. Obviously Bill didn't know what was going on with the Slytherins, but he definitely knew something was going on. Louis didn't know how he'd come to that conclusion. All Louis did was run and exercise. It couldn't be that suspicious. But he knew he had to watch himself for the remainder of the holiday.

Christmas Eve came, and everyone headed to the Burrow for their big Weasley Christmas. Louis participated in the annual game of hide-and-go-seek, and then when it was time for the Quidditch game, he immediately opted out. While James and the adults got their teams sorted, Louis decided to run some laps of the big field that surrounded the Burrow.

As he started running, his legs immediately took over and his brain shut off. There was no need to think when he ran, all he needed to do was let his legs carry him. It was a wonderful feeling. Louis was a little surprised when he realized it, but it was true. He was really enjoying running. He got the feeling that if he stopped, like Professor Derlid had warned him not to, he wouldn't feel good about it. He liked running, liked feeling the power and strength in his legs. In fact, he liked all his exercises. He liked feeling strong and able. He'd never liked being weak and limp like a wilted flower.

And now that he was training like he was, he was starting to put on a little bit of weight. Not a crazy amount yet, but enough to make him a bit more substantial. Why was his father so worried about him? Louis was doing great! He was happy and healthy and stronger than ever. As Louis ran back in the direction of the Burrow – the Quidditch game was clearly over and dinner was about to be served – he found himself smiling. When he got back to Hogwarts, those Slytherins wouldn't recognize him.


	15. January Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 15: January 2017

As usual, the Christmas holidays didn't last nearly as long, and before he knew it, Louis was back on the train to Hogwarts. He and Justin found a compartment together and settled in for the day-long train ride back to Hogwarts.

"Good holiday?" Louis asked Justin.

"Pretty good," Justin replied. "You?"

"Ran a lot," Louis replied. "So that was good."

"Not me," Justin shook his head. "I did all my exercises and stuff, but there's nowhere to run when you live in a flat. I'd have had to go down onto the street."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Louis said.

Justin shook his head. "I wasn't doing it," he declared. "It'll be fine, I'll start running again as soon as we get back to school."

"If you say so," Louis shrugged, not about to start a fight.

The boys lapsed into silence for a while, Louis starting out the window thoughtfully and Justin staring at his trunk with an odd expression on his face. It wasn't until the trunk fell flat on its side that Louis paid it any attention.

"Is everything alright with your trunk?" Louis asked. He wouldn't have bothered except for the degree of attention Justin was giving it. Normally they stowed their trunks in the above-head racks and forgot about them, but Justin had insisted on leaving his on the floor, and now it was behaving oddly.

"Fine," Justin replied shortly. "It's just a trunk. Clothes, books, cauldron. Nothing special in there."

"Are you sure?" Louis frowned, completely unconvinced. Now he was almost positive Justin was hiding something. "Can I take a look?"

"No you may not!" Justin exclaimed in outrage. "A man doesn't let another man go searching through his trunk! That's incredibly inappropriate."

Louis tried to stifle a laugh. Justin was being very serious and protective of his trunk, and it was only making Louis more and more curious.

"Just tell me what you're hiding," Louis insisted. "I'll find out soon enough anyway."

"You won't," Justin shook his head. "Unlike some people, I intend to keep my trunk locked during the day, so that snoopy roommates don't go pawing through it for no good reason."

"It wouldn't be for no good reason," Louis pointed out. "Not if we just wanted to know why you're acting strangely."

Before Justin could respond to this, a strange noise came from inside his trunk. It sounded almost like a muffled groan. Louis' eyes shot to the trunk suspiciously and then back at Justin.

" _Please_ tell me there's not a person in there," he begged.

"Don't be daft," Justin rolled his eyes. "Of course there's not a person in there."

"Well there's something in there," Louis said. "Something alive. Something had to have made that noise."

"That was just my new talking… socks," Justin replied.

"Talking socks?" Louis repeated, wholly unimpressed. "You're going with talking socks?"

"Well you didn't give me enough time to come up with something better!" Justin exclaimed.

"Aha!" Louis cried. "So you are keeping something a secret."

Justin sighed and hung his head. "If I tell you, do you promise not to tell a soul? It's really embarrassing."

"Of course," Louis agreed. "The two of us are keeping enough secrets as it is, what's another one?"

"Alright," Justin replied, slowly moving over to his trunk and setting it on the proper side so that he could open it. "Now just remember that this was not my idea," he said as he clicked open the latches and prepared to open the lid. "It was a Christmas present from my uncle. Don't know what he was thinking."

"Just open the thing," Louis insisted, tired of Justin's procrastinating.

Justin did open his trunk, and as soon as he did, something slimy and slippery launched itself out of the trunk and landed on Louis' face.

"Ah!" he cried in surprise, shaking his head one way and then the other to try and get the thing off. It was clinging pretty hard though, and wouldn't budge. "What is it? Get if off!"

"Sorry," Justin apologized, grabbing onto the thing and tugging it off of Louis' face. He pulled it away and Louis got a proper look at it. It was a toad. "I didn't expect it to jump like that."

"Uh, Justin?" Louis frowned. "Why do you have a toad?"

"I told you, it was a Christmas present from my uncle," Justin replied. "I know, it's the lamest pet ever, but what was I supposed to do? My parents thought it was such a thoughtful gift."

"Toads have been out of style since forever," Louis pointed out. "I'm pretty sure the last time they were in style, my father was just starting at Hogwarts."

"I know," Justin shrugged helplessly. "But now I'm stuck with one."

"What was it doing in your trunk?" Louis questioned. "Shouldn't it be in a cage or something?"

"Well I didn't want everyone to see it!" Justin defended himself. "It's not like I wedged it in between my books and my inkwells. I put it in my cauldron and set it up with some grass and some food, to make it comfortable."

"No offense," Louis muttered, "but I don't think the toad liked being in there."

Justin shrugged. "Well too bad," he said, more to the toad than to Louis. "Because I don't like having you around, so you're just going to have to learn to live in my cauldron."

"You can't keep it cooped up like that!" Louis protested. "You have to let it hop around, enjoy life. You can't punish the toad for existing. It's not it's fault it's an uncool animal."

"But if I let it hop around, people will know I have one," Justin groaned.

"It's not like we were ever cool to begin with," Louis pointed out.

This was an excellent point, and Justin conceded. Over the course of the remainder of the trip to Hogwarts, the boys debated on what to call the toad. 'It' and 'toad' were getting old, and until now, Justin had refused to name the thing in protest.

In the end, they settled on 'Toby'. According to Justin, it was sufficiently lame to match the toad's lameness. As for Louis, he agreed that a short name was more appropriate for the small creature.

When they arrived at school, Justin stuffed Toby back into his trunk. Louis wanted to protest, but the alternative would have been carrying him into the welcome back feast, and Louis understood why that wasn't an option. It would be one thing for their dormmates to find out Justin had a toad. It would be another to announce it to the whole school.

When the feast came to a close, the boys headed back up to the Gryffindor common room and then straight to their dorm to let Toby out. None of their roommates were back yet, which was a positive. Justin let Toby out, and Toby immediately started hopping around the room.

"Toby no!" Justin cried, chasing after him. "Come on, you can live in my drawer. It's nice and dark in there when it's closed, just like you like!"

But Toby wouldn't listen, choosing instead to hop from bed to bed, leaving big wet marks all over the boys' blankets and pillows.

"Toby no!" Justin cried when Toby stopped on Philip's bed and started to pee. "Toby, gross!"

Thankfully, this gave Justin the chance to grab the toad before he hopped away again and shove it into the drawer in his bedside table.

Just as he closed the drawer, Philip, Russel, and Randall returned from dinner and started to set themselves up and unpack.

"Why is my pillow wet?" Russel frowned, picking it up and poking at the wet spot.

"And why is my bedspread wet?" Randall added, pressing his hand to the spot Toby had jumped on and removing it.

"My bedspread is wet too," Philip said, gesturing to his own. "And it smells kind of funny."

Louis wrinkled his nose as Philip got closer to the pee stain to smell it. Justin was turning all shades of red and looked like he wanted to hide.

"Louis? Justin? Is anything on either of your beds wet?" Philip asked, looking at the two boys.

"Erm," Louis began. "Well, my pillow is actually a little slimy…"

"The elves must be getting lax," Russel muttered. "I think I'll have a word with Professor Slinkhard about it, because this is unacceptable."

"It wasn't the elves," Justin groaned, burying his face into his hands. "I'm sorry guys, it's my fault. Or rather, it's Toby's fault."

He opened his drawer and Toby hopped out, landing on the floor. He started hopping up and down and Louis shook his head. Of course now Toby behaved decently.

"You have a toad?" Randall exclaimed, his eyes going wide. "That's about the lamest thing I've ever seen!"

"I can't believe you brought a toad to Hogwarts!" Philip added. "You're never going to be able to live this one down."

"Just keep it away from my stuff," Russel insisted, glaring at the toad angrily. "And I'm still going to have to call the elves to come get me a new pillow, because there's no way I'm sleeping with this one."

Justin hung his head in embarrassment, and Louis carefully picked up Toby and put him back in the drawer for the night.

"That wasn't so bad," Louis said, trying to cheer Justin up. "And now they know. It was only a matter of time."

"I'm going to bed," Justin muttered, hopping into his bed and closing the curtains around him.

Moments later, the elves arrived. They tore through the room like a hurricane, changing all four of the boys' beds and leaving them as good as new.

"Thank you!" Louis called after them, but they were already gone.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next morning, Justin refused to get out of bed until all three of their roommates had left for classes. Only one they were gone did he emerge and start getting dressed. The boys were late to their first class, which lost them a cumulative five points for Gryffindor, but Justin saw it as a fair trade-off.

Over the next few days, Justin tried ignoring Toby. Unfortunately, Toby wouldn't be ignored, and if Justin didn't let him out of the drawer during the day, Toby would hop around inside it until it opened by itself. Even a locking spell didn't seem to prevent Toby from getting out, much to Justin's dismay. Justin was becoming more and more unpopular in the dorm, and Louis was starting to see why keeping Toby in the cauldron had seemed a better plan at first.

One day, Louis and Justin returned from an astronomy club meeting to find Russel in a rage. He was tearing the room apart for no apparent reason, just upending things and throwing things around and screaming all kinds of obscenities.

The moment he saw Justin, he stopped in his tracks and focused all his rage on him.

"You!" he cried, pointing his finger at Justin and advancing menacingly. Justin immediately braced himself and Louis was suddenly glad for the training sessions with Professor Derlid. They might not be ready to face the Slytherins quite yet, but he was sure Justin could hold his own against Russel. "You and that toad have got to go!"

"Hey, this is Justin's dorm too," Louis insisted. "You can't go ordering him around like that, or kicking people out. This is a shared space."

"Well then he should respect my space," Russel cried. "Look at this!"

He waved a stack of parchment in Louis' face, but Louis couldn't tell what it was.

"Okay, just calm down and explain," Louis said, trying to hold his cool since Justin was clearly not going to be useful.

"Here," Russel shoved the parchments into Louis' hand and Louis started paging through them. They had clearly been written on, appeared to be some sort of assignment, but the pages were covered in large water stains, making them completely illegible. "It _was_ my potions essay," Russel clarified. "Now it's just a big mess."

"Toby did this?" Louis asked.

"Who else would have done?" Russel demanded. "I left them on top of my trunk this morning, and when I came back, they were skewed across the room and that toad was hopping around like mad."

"But you can't be sure it was Toby," Louis pointed out. "You didn't actually see him do anything with them."

"Oh, it was Toby," Justin said, finally speaking up. "We all know it was Toby. He ruins everything." Justin sounded defeated.

"Don't say that!" Louis insisted, not sure why he was fighting for Toby. "Toby doesn't know any better. He'd a toad. It's what he does."

"Well something has to be done about it," Russel insisted. "Because I'm not putting up with this anymore. I already have to re-write my potions essay, which I'm not happy about. It was completely finished!"

"At least you already know what you want to say," Louis pointed out. "It's not like you're starting from scratch."

"I might as well be," Russel muttered, storming away with his ruined essay clutched in his hand. Louis could hear him continue to mutter about Justin and Toby all the way down to the common room.

Once Russel was out of earshot, Louis turned to Justin.

"This wasn't your fault," he insisted, knowing that Justin would be taking everything Russel had said to heart. "Russel can't blame you for something Toby did while you were at class."

"Sure he can," Justin insisted. "I brought Toby into the dorm. I'm responsible for his actions."

"Everyone's just going to have to get used to Toby," Louis said. "Obviously it's going to take awhile, but eventually they'll come around."

"No," Justin shook his head. "Russel was right. Toby has to go."

LlLlLlLlLlL

No matter what Louis said, Justin wouldn't change his mind. He'd decided and that was that. The followed afternoon, as soon as classes were over, Louis and Justin went up to the dorm to collect Toby.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Louis asked. "He was a present from your uncle."

"A lame present I never wanted," Justin insisted. "Trust me, I'm sure."

"What will your parents say when you come home for the summer without him?" Louis asked.

"I'll tell them he ran away," Justin replied. "They can't get mad at me for losing him. I mean, maybe a little, for being careless, but that's all. And it's not like he didn't have a knack for opening drawers and escaping when I wasn't around."

"I just don't think you've thought this through!" Louis insisted as they headed down the stairs towards the Entrance Hall.

"Oh believe me, I've thought this through," Justin said.

"You're just reacting to what Russel said yesterday," Louis insisted. "You're acting from emotion, not logic."

"I was thinking about doing this even before what Russel said yesterday," Justin replied. "The whole potions essay debacle was just the final nail in the coffin."

"Once you do this, there's no going back," Louis reminded his friend. "As soon as he's gone, he's gone."

"I know," Justin said. "But I'm decided. I'm doing it."

They came to the Entrance Hall and headed outside. It was cold, so they'd put on their cloaks and scarves and gloves, but they were still immediately chilled upon stepping out of the castle.

Louis followed Justin down to the frozen lake and then out into the center of it. Taking out his wand, Justin performed a simple spell to crack the ice just a bit, and Louis helped him remove the broken off piece of ice from the rest. Then Justin knelt by the hole in the ice and pulled Toby out of his pocket.

"Alright," Justin said, holding his hands out so Toby could see the water. "Go on, get in. This is your new home now."

"I don't think Toby understands English," Louis pointed out. "You might have to just drop him in there."

But Toby did seem to understand, because he hopped out of Justin's hands, landing on the ice right at the edge of the hole and peered down into the icy depths.

"It'll be cold up at the top," Justin agreed, sensing the toad's wariness. "But you just have to swim down to the bottom, and then it'll be nice and warm. And there'll be all sorts of other fish and things to be friends with down there. And one it gets warmer and the ice melts, you can come up to the shore and hop around on the grass all you want."

Louis suddenly got the strong feeling that he was intruding on a private moment, so he slowly backed away and went to wait for Justin on land. He watched from a distance as Justin said his final goodbyes to Toby, and then the toad hopped into the hole and disappeared from view.

"Are you alright?" Louis asked when Justin returned to shore.

"Fine," Justin nodded, hiding his face. Louis could have sworn he saw a tear, but he decided not to bring it up.

"Well what's done is done," Louis shrugged. There would be no going after Toby now, not now that he was down at the bottom of the lake. And once spring came, there would be tons of toads hopping around on the shore, and it would be next to impossible to know which one was Toby. "We'd better get going. Professor Derlid will be waiting for us."

And so the two boys set off for their physical defence training session, thoughts of Toby slowly drifting away as they refocused their attention on all the other important things going on in their lives.


	16. February Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 16: February 2016

"Last one to the courtyard has to tell Madam Maxwell that we spilled ink on that library book!" Justin shouted as he and Louis rounded the final corner of the castle.

It was a crisp Saturday morning, and the boys were completing their daily laps of the castle for Professor Derlid. At first, the whole training regimen had seemed like it was going to be an effort in futility, that there was no way the two Gryffindors would ever get in shape enough to fight off a hoard of Slytherins. But after a couple of months of training, things were looking up. They could complete their laps with breath to spare, their muscles were getting stronger, and most important of all, they were both feeling much more confident in themselves.

"It's not a race!" Louis shouted back, as Justin took the lead.

"You're only saying that because you're losing," Justin shot back, redoubling his efforts and shooting forward with a little burst of speed.

Louis rolled his eyes and pushed forward in the hopes of outrunning his friend. But Justin was too far ahead now and the courtyard was too close for Louis to have any chance.

The two boys burst into the entrance courtyard and came to a stop right at the bottom of the stairs that led into the castle, where Professor Derlid stood looking at his watch.

"Better," he said shortly.

"Oh, come on Professor," Louis groaned, putting his hands on his knees as he took a few deep breaths to cool down. "That was our best run yet."

"You were only a few seconds faster than last week," Professor Derlid replied. "I'd like to see you shave off a full minute by the end of the month."

"Isn't it enough that we're actually completing the circuit?" Justin asked. "Can't we just look at how far we've come?"

"You can always be better," Professor Derlid replied. "I'll expect next Saturday to be a significant improvement from today."

Louis rolled his eyes. Professor Derlid acted all strict, but he knew the defence teacher was proud of the boys' dedication and commitment. Not many students were this invested in physical defence – most relied on magical defence instead. But Louis and Justin knew the importance of physical strength in addition to magical prowess.

With their run finished, the boys followed their professor up to the defence classroom for some more training. Today they worked with some weights, and then Professor Derlid had the two boys wrestle against one another as a practical application of their new strength.

When they were done, the boys started to head back to Gryffindor Tower to get a head start on their weekend homework.

"Alright, so here's that library book," Justin said when they were about halfway there. He pulled the book in question out of his bag and handed it to Louis.

"And what do you expect me to do with this?" Louis demanded.

"Return it to the library," Justin replied. "You did lose the race after all."

"First of all, I wasn't racing. Second of all, you're the one that knocked that inkwell over, so you should be the one to return it," Louis insisted.

"But you're the one that put the inkwell so close to a library book," Justin pointed out. "And technically, it was checked out of the library under your name."

Louis sighed. "Alright fine," he agreed. "I'll return the book. But I'm telling Madam Maxwell that you're the culprit."

"Can't we just say the elves did it?" Justin pleaded.

"No," Louis shook his head. "We are not blaming the elves for something they didn't do. That's not fair."

Justin sighed and Louis shook his head as he peeled off in the opposite direction to take a detour through the library. "I'll see you in a few!" he called out after him.

The library was all the way down on the second floor, and Louis was up on the sixth, but there was a nearby staircase that would take him straight down to the corridor that led to the library, so it wasn't a huge inconvenience.

When he arrived in the library, Madam Maxwell was busy yelling at a group of third years, so Louis slipped the damaged library book into the returned books pile and slipped in and out without a word. He'd lucked out, because usually Madam Maxwell insists on paging through returned books when students bring them back to check for damages in order to scold the offender to their face. At least this way, if Louis avoided the library for a short while, she would have forgotten about it by the next time he saw her.

As he exited the library corridor and made his way to the Grand Staircase, Louis found himself whistling joyfully. It was a good day. He was feeling strong, he'd avoided a confrontation with Madam Maxwell, he was doing pretty well in his classes… Things were really starting to look up.

"Hey Louis!" a female voice rang out as Louis began to climb the first set of stairs.

Louis paused and turned around to find Brooke, his older sister's friend, coming up behind him.

"Hi Brooke," Louis returned, pausing so the fourth year girl could catch up.

"You seem cheerful today," Brooke commented.

"It's a good day," Louis returned.

Brooke smiled. "That's nice to hear."

As the two continued up the stairs, Brooke stumbled and one of the sandwiches she was carrying fell to the floor.

"Why are you carrying so much food?" Louis frowned, taking stock of the contents of Brooke's arms. There were tons of sandwiches, as well as a bowl filled with soup that was balancing precariously between her arms.

"It's for Domi," Brooke replied, regaining her balance.

"Here, let me help you," Louis instead, grabbing the bowl of soup so that Brooke could focus on the sandwiches. "And since when can Domi not go down to the Great Hall to get her own lunch?"

"She's having a bit of a problem today," Brooke informed him. "I'm sure she'll get it sorted by Monday. At least I hope she does. But anyway, she won't leave the common room until it's been fixed."

"What's the problem?" Louis wondered. He didn't know of anything going on with his sister, and he wondered if he should be concerned.

"It's nothing terrible," Brooke assured him. "And I don't think she wants people to know. Of course, people already know, so it's not like I'd be giving away a secret…"

Louis nodded, encouraging Brooke to go on and just tell him what it was.

Brooke sighed. "She's gone bald," the girl revealed.

"Gone bald?" Louis frowned. "How is that possible?"

"Well she hasn't gone bald so much as been balded. Summer Snow did a spell to embarrass her. It certainly worked."

"So you're telling me that my sister presently has no hair?" Louis asked for clarification. "As in zero hair?"

"That's right," Brooke nodded. "She's working on finding a spell to reverse it, but so far nothing."

Louis was able to keep his calm for all of five seconds before he burst out laughing. The image of his beautiful sister with no hair was too funny. He couldn't wait to get back to the common room to see it for himself.

"It's not funny!" Brooke insisted. "Domi is devastated. It was a malicious move on Summer's part, done purposely to hurt her."

"I'm sorry," Louis said, sobering. "I'm sorry, I know it's really not funny, it's just the image of her without hair…"

"You can't laugh if you happen to see her," Brooke insisted. "You can't laugh at her. Enough people have done it already. If you need to laugh, then stay in the hall."

They had come to the portrait hole and all that was left was to say the password and climb inside.

Louis nodded, forcing a frown to his face to push away the laughter. "It's okay, I'm good," he assured Brooke.

"Alright," Brooke nodded, glancing at Louis nervously before giving the password. " _Babbity Rabbity_."

The portrait hole swung open and Louis crawled in after Brooke, following the fourth year to a far corner of the room, where a student sat alone, hood pulled up over her head in an effort to remain unrecognizable.

"Domi?" Brooke said gently, putting the sandwiches down in front of her. "Any luck yet?"

"What do you think?" Dominique muttered back, angrily shutting the book she was leafing through in favor of a sandwich.

Louis placed the bowl of soup down in front of his sister and Brooke produced a spoon.

"Don't worry Domi, I'm sure it's not that bad," he assured her.

"Not that bad?" Dominique cried, lifting her head to meet her brother's eyes. There was fire in her eyes, which told Louis that she was taking this whole thing very seriously.

In the swift motion of her head movement, the hood slipped a little and Louis got a nice view of her balded forehead. He had to stifle a giggle as she furiously tugged the hood over her face properly.

"Louis, what did I say before we came in here?" Brooke demanded dangerously, sensing Louis' amusement.

"Right, sorry," Louis raised his hands in defence. "I'll just be…" he glanced around the room. "I'll be over there," he pointed to where Justin was sitting with his herbology notes all around him.

Neither Brooke nor Dominique acknowledged this, and Louis left before he lost control and did laugh I his sister's face.

"What's all going on over there?" Justin wondered as he scribbled something down on his assignment parchment.

"Nothing much," Louis shrugged. "Just Domi's hair is gone and she's trying to grow it back."

As he said the words, Louis found himself chuckling out loud. It was just such a hilarious situation, and of course Dominique would be the one to get herself into it.

"What do you mean?" Justin demanded, dropping his quill and shoving his homework aside. "Where's it gone?"

Louis shrugged. "I guess some other fourth year was playing some kind of prank and did a spell to remove all her hair," he replied. Brooke hadn't given all the details.

"Tell me who, and I'll make them pay," Justin declared, pushing himself up into a standing position, looking ready to strike.

"Oh no," Louis shook his head. "I'm not telling you who did it if you're going to be like that. We should just leave it alone, it doesn't involve us anyway, and I don't think Domi would want you retaliating for her."

"If you don't tell me, I'll just find out from someone else," Justin threatened. "So you might as well tell me now."

Louis sighed. Justin had a point. And Louis knew that if he pried and asked the right people, he'd surely figure it out in no time. "Alright fine," Louis said. "But remember that I'm against you getting involved."

"You've made your opinion very clear," Justin affirmed.

"Alright then," Louis nodded. "It was Summer Snow."

LlLlLlLlLlL

Over the course of the next few days, Justin spoke of nothing but his plans to make Summer pay for embarrassing Dominique. Of course, he had no idea what he was going to do in retaliation, only that he was going to do something.

Louis tried talking his friend out of it. Getting involved was a bad idea for so many reasons. For one, Dominique didn't need some random second year fighting her battles, and probably wouldn't appreciate it if she knew. For two, Louis had thought that Justin's weird obsession with his sister was over, but that was obviously not the case. Not to mention getting involved could put a big red target on Justin's back, which was the last thing either boy needed. They had enough problems with the Slytherins in their own year, they didn't need to be picking fights with the older students too.

But Justin was adamant that Dominique be avenged. And he was determined to embarrass Summer Snow just as badly if not worse than how she'd embarrassed Dominique. Preferably in front of the entire school. He just had to come up with an idea. And after a few days of thinking on it, he did. It just wasn't a very good one.

LlLlLlLlLlL

"Don't do it," Louis pleaded as Justin scoped out the best place to play out his revenge plot.

"I'm sorry, but I have to," Justin replied.

"You can just walk away now and forget about it," Louis insisted. "Pretend nothing ever happened."

"But something did happen," Justin pointed out. "I have to respond."

"You really don't," Louis said. "You are the last person who needs to be responding to this. It has nothing to do with you, you shouldn't be involving yourself."

"You're right," Justin agreed, to Louis' surprise.

"I am?" Louis frowned.

Justin nodded. "I am the last person who should be involving myself. It should be you. She's your sister. You should be defending her honor, as her brother. But you're not, so I'm stepping up."

Louis sighed. "Just leave it alone," he begged.

But Justin shook his head. "Not a chance," he said. "And I think I've picked my spot."

Shaking his head and wishing his friend wasn't so stupid, Louis watched as Justin carefully positioned the banana peel on the floor at the top of the stairs that led up from the dungeons. While there were multiple routes out of the dungeons, this was the one most often frequented by Summer and her friends, and therefore, Justin's best shot at catching her.

Once the peel was placed, Justin focused his energy and cast a quick invisibility spell on it. It was an extremely advanced spell, which Justin absolutely had not mastered yet, which meant that if Summer didn't show up in the next five minutes, the spell would fade and Justin's plan would fail. Which was why Justin had been watching Summer for the past few days to ascertain her schedule, and why he knew that she would be heading up for breakfast any moment now.

"Okay, hide!" Justin hissed at Louis once the trap was in place.

With a roll of his eyes, Louis followed Justin and hid behind a large pillar to avoid being seen. While he thought the whole thing was a terrible idea, he certainly didn't want to be spotted at the scene of the accident by anyone who might connect him with it.

A chorus of voices began to become audible, and Louis and Justin knew that Summer was on her way up. Justin eagerly shifted so that he could watch the whole thing unfurl, while Louis covered his eyes, wishing that he was anywhere but there.

The voices got closer and closer, passed the boys, and then got further and further away. Confused, Louis opened his eyes to find Justin walking back out into the middle of the corridor and looking down at the ground where he'd placed the peel with a frown.

"What happened?" Louis asked.

"She must have missed it," Justin said, sounding like he could barely believe his own ears.

"Well where did you leave it?" Louis asked. "Was it even in her path?"

"I don't… I can't seem to find it," Justin admitted as he kicked around on the ground, searching for the invisible banana peel.

Louis groaned. "Good job," he muttered. "You lost your revenge. Genius move making it invisible."

"Well she wasn't going to slip on it if she could see it," Justin retorted. "She'd have just walked around it."

"She did that anyway!" Louis pointed out. "And now you can't even find it!"

"The spell will wear off any minute now," Justin insisted. "We just have to let it run it's course."

As he said that, a new group of voices started approaching from the bottom of the stairs. Neither Louis nor Justin paid them any mind until the leader of the group became visible. It was David Flint.

"Ah, my least favorite Gryffindors!" Flint called out menacingly.

Louis immediately flinched backwards.

"Why are the two of you lurking at the top of our stairs?" he asked suspiciously.

He moved forward, as if to block Louis and Justin into a corner, but then suddenly, his foot swung out from underneath him and he flew into the air, sailed backwards a bit, and landed on his behind right on the edge of the top stair.

There was a moment where Flint's eyes went wide as he realized what was about to happen. Louis could see it all happening as if in slow motion, and he had no way of stopping it even if he'd wanted to. Flint's whole body tilted backwards and then he began to slide down the staircase, bumping along as he went, arms flailing out for something to grab onto, but nothing within reach.

The other Slytherins gave him a wide berth, not wanting to be knocked over themselves, and Flint's cries out outrage could be heard all the way down the staircase until he landed at the bottom with a veritable thump.

"Weasley! Spinnet! I'll kill you!" he roared as he got up and brushed himself off.

Knowing he would probably make good on his promise, the two boys shared a glance at each other and immediately took off at a run, their destination the only place a couple of Gryffindors would be safe from a rampaging Slytherin: Gryffindor Tower.

It wasn't until they were safely back in the common room that the boys stopped to catch their breath. And when they finally did, Louis grabbed Justin by the shoulder and threw him into the wall.

"See what you've done?" he roared, his anger surprising him. "Now Flint will be out to get us even worse! I told you this whole thing was a terrible idea!"

"How was I supposed to know Flint would trip on the peel instead of Summer?" Justin demanded. "It's not my fault she missed it."

"Not your – this is all your fault!" Louis cried. "If you'd just stayed out of this whole thing – "

"It was your choice to come with me today," Justin pointed out. "You could have gone to breakfast on your own, but you came with me instead. Don't blame me for things going wrong, it's not like I did it on purpose."

Louis clenched his teeth, took a deep breath, and then unclenched them. Justin made a good point. And Louis couldn't really blame Justin for how the whole thing had played out. Justin was in just as much trouble now as Louis was, and Louis certainly couldn't claim that Justin had wanted things to happen that way.

"You're right, I'm sorry for snapping," Louis apologized. "It's just – suddenly I feel like how I felt the last time they came for us. Helpless, and useless, and unable to do anything to change that."

"But you're not helpless anymore," Justin reminded him. "We aren't. We've been training for this. When Flint comes for us, we'll be ready. We'll fight him off, and then we'll use the shield charm to keep him off, and then he'll realize that we're stronger and not so easily bullied anymore."

"Yes," Louis agreed. "This is what we've been training for. And the day was going to come sooner or later."

"Looks like it's sooner rather than later," Justin said apologetically. "And I am sorry for that."

Louis shrugged. "I guess I can't really blame you," he said. "But for the record, this really sucks."


	17. March Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 17: March 2017

For the first few days after the incident with Flint, Louis and Justin walked on eggshells, waiting for him to strike at them. They did their best never to go anywhere alone, made sure to spend as much time in Gryffindor Tower as possible, as nobody from Slytherin could gain access, and fled the vicinity anytime any of the second year Slytherins were nearby, unless it was absolutely vital that they be in the same room, like for classes.

But when nothing happened, the boys began to relax. Perhaps Flint had calmed down, they thought. Perhaps he'd realized that the whole banana peel thing had been a big misunderstanding. Perhaps he had no intention of doing anything to them. So long as they kept their heads down, they should be fine.

Weeks went by, and still, nothing. And then one fateful afternoon, that all changed.

Louis and Justin were just on their way back to the common room after a particularly thrilling astronomy club meeting when they noticed a shadow cross their path. Justin paused for a moment, but Louis kept on walking towards the corner that was coming up to find their path blocked by Darian Reed and Arthur Pritchard.

Louis froze, and Justin bumped into him from behind, not expecting the sudden halt. The Slytherins were smiling and stretching, a frightening sight. Louis and Justin both took a step back and turned as if to run, but Anthony Pearle and Alec Roper had snuck up behind them and were now blocking their exit.

"Nowhere to run," Arthur noted, as he and Darian took another step forward. Anthony and Alec did the same, and Louis got the distinct impression that he and Justin were being herded in like cattle.

"W-what do you w-want?" Louis asked, his voice shaking. He didn't mean for it to, but he couldn't control it. He started having flashbacks to the encounter he and Justin had had in November with the Slytherins and swallowed thickly. His heart began to race and he was worried he might start hyperventilating.

The Slytherins sneered, and then footsteps sounded from down the hall and the six boys all turned to look in that direction. David Flint came around the corner, walked past Arthur and Darian, and stopped right in front of the Gryffindors.

"I know what the two of you have been up to this year," he declared. "Did you think I was an idiot?"

"W-what do you m-mean?" Justin stammered, terrified.

"All those _lessons_ with Professor Derlid?" David said, making air quotes with his fingers when he said 'lessons'. "You think you can overpower us? Overpower me? You think you can take us on and win? Think again."

"W-we didn't… we d-don't…"

"And then to be so cowardly as to hide behind some lame banana peel accident to hurt me?" Flint added. "It's insulting. So now, I'm going to grant your wish."

"Our wish?' Louis frowned. The words sounded good, but the tone was the complete opposite.

"Only the very thing you've been training for all these months," David said, his voice taking on a tone of innocence, while his demeanour showed that he was anything but. "You've been preparing to take us on. Well fine. You'll find I'm very accommodating. Boys?"

He motioned to Anthony and Alec, who moved too quickly for either Justin or Louis to react. The Slytherins pulled the boys' wands from their pockets, and in one swift motion, snapped them like twigs.

A small shower of sparks flew from the middle of each wand where the crack was made – purple sparks for Louis and red for Justin – and Louis could feel the power in his wand die as the dragon heartstring core was torn in two like a blade cutting him somewhere deep inside.

"There," David said, with a terrifying smugness. "No wands. So it'll have to be a physical fight."

"What about your wands?" Louis demanded. Despite the pain of having just watched his wand be destroyed, Louis had more pressing concerns to deal with and forced himself to focus. Somehow, he and Justin needed to get out of there without being torn apart limb from limb. Because if they fought, Louis was pretty sure he was going the same way his wand just had.

David reached into his pockets, grabbed the material at the bottom, and pulled up, turning them inside out. He gestured to the others to do the same and Louis and Justin both noted that none of the five boys was concealing anything in their pockets.

"See? No wands. We left ours back in the dorm," David assured them. "It'll be a fair fight."

"Five against two," Justin scoffed, feigning confidence. Louis had to admire his friend in that moment. He couldn't have feigned anything at this point he was so scared. "I wouldn't call that fair."

"One against one then?" Flint asked. "Very well, I'll concede to it. If you win, we back off. And if we win, we get to do anything we want with you."

Louis and Justin exchanged a look as they tried to decide what to do. But the answer was clear. They had to accept Flint's terms. If they didn't, the five Slytherins would just beat them up anyway. At least one on one they stood a bit of a chance.

"We accept your terms," Justin agreed. "But we get to choose who we fight."

Louis had to admit that this was a brilliant idea, assuming Flint went for it. A fight against Reed would surely end in the hospital wing, but a fight against one of the less muscular of the group could end in victory.

"Alright," Flint said, confidently. He crossed his arms and stepped back, in line with Darian and Arthur. "So who will it be?"

"I pick Arthur," Justin said immediately. He looked apologetically at Louis. Though not someone Louis would consider weak by any estimation, Arthur was the least physically strong of the group. He would be the easiest of the five to fight.

Everyone turned to Louis next, waiting for him to choose his opponent. Louis glanced from one to the next as he evaluated the pros and cons of the four remaining Slytherins in his head.

Darian Reed was obviously out. He was the strongest and deadliest of the Slytherins. Louis didn't stand a chance against him. And Flint was out too. He was the most personally invested in this, as the leader of the group, and would probably prove the most passionate fighter. Which left either Anthony or Alec. Louis compared the two, and decided that Alec looked a bit less menacing.

"I'll fight Alec," Louis decided.

Flint nodded, and motioned to the two selected Slytherins.

Louis felt his heartrate pick up even more speed as Alec stepped towards him and on his left, Arthur stepped towards Justin. The two Slytherins moved around the Gryffindors to isolate them from each other and then took up their battle stances. Meanwhile, the remaining three Slytherins repositioned themselves so as to adequately block any possible escape routes.

"On my count," Flint declared, acting as moderator. "Three… two…"

Louis didn't hear the one, because as Flint counted down, he'd tuned out the rest of the world in an attempt to focus completely and entirely on Alec Roper. Louis moved first, hoping that starting on the offensive would give him an advantage. He used all the techniques he'd learned with Professor Derlid, starting by throwing a couple of punches, and then attempting to get Alec on the ground.

At first, it seemed to Louis that he was winning. Alec wasn't fighting back too much, obviously sticking to the defensive, and Louis hadn't sustained a single hit. But then, Louis broke his concentration as he turned to see how Justin was doing and suddenly an arm had wrapped around his neck and pulled him towards Alec from behind.

Louis struggled to free himself, but the arm was rock solid and wouldn't budge. In front of Louis, he watched Justin fall to the floor and Arthur begin to kick him in the stomach, and Louis shut his eyes so that he wouldn't have to see.

He felt Alec's head come closer to his, and felt the boy's breath as he whispered into Louis' ear.

"I'm sorry for this," the Slytherin boy said.

Suddenly, Louis felt himself be thrown to the ground. He slammed against the stone floor with enough force to knock the wind out of him. His eyes flew open from the shock and he saw Alec's foot coming for his face only moments before it made contact.

He felt his nose break, and blood gushed out, flowing into the stone floor. Louis tried to push himself up, to keep fighting, but a second blow to his groin sent him flying backwards, and he felt himself hit a nearby suit of armor, and the whole thing fell apart, tumbling onto the floor on and around Louis. Sharp edges of the metal cut into his skin, and Louis cried out in pain.

"Do you concede?" he heard Flint call out.

Louis shook his head and tried to pick himself up. Alec moved forward, grabbing him by the front of his shirt, and whirled him around, throwing him into the opposite wall. Louis' back smashed against it and he would have fallen if Alec weren't still holding him up.

With his free hand, Alec began to punch Louis repeatedly in the chest and stomach, and Louis could feel his ribs cracking as he did. He gasped, trying to catch enough breath to surrender, but there wasn't enough time between blows. He was punched in the face again, and everything went black as he was thrown facedown on the ground.

"Ready to give up?" Flint's voice called out. It sounded far away, but Louis knew that this was only because of his weakened state, and that Flint was surely still standing right there.

It took all of his strength, but Louis pushed himself up and forced his right eye open – his left wouldn't cooperate – and nodded.

"I… surrender," Louis could only manage two words before collapsing onto the floor again.

Justin must have surrendered also, because the fighting sounds had stopped, and all five Slytherins were now standing in a circle around the two boys, motionless, as Flint examined them.

"I think they've learned their lesson," Louis heard him say. "But just to ensure nothing like this ever happens again…"

They took Justin first. Louis couldn't see from his position what they did to him, but he could hear the sounds, and more importantly, the screams that his friend made. If his bladder hadn't already betrayed him, Louis was sure it would have in that moment, as he waited in terror, completely helpless, for his turn to come.

His eyes were closed, so the only warning he had that they were coming for him was that Justin had fallen silent. One of the Slytherin boys yanked him up off the ground by his hair, causing Louis' scalp to scream in protest, and then his arms were grabbed and held behind him, so that he couldn't move.

For a couple of minutes, each of the four Slytherins that weren't holding him from behind took turns hitting, kicking, and punching Louis on every available surface they could find. One of them seemed to take a particular interest in where his ribs had been broken, which elicited the most intense of screams. Someone spat in Louis' face, but it barely registered on Louis' radar at that point.

Somewhere along the line, on of the Slytherins left for a moment, and then returned with a large rock, which was smashed repeatedly into Louis' left foot, breaking just about every bone inside. Then, whoever was restraining Louis let go, and he went falling to the ground, unable to support himself on his destroyed foot, even if he'd had the strength.

Even before he'd fully finished falling, he felt a hand wrap around the broken foot and lift it, so that Louis' leg was extended in the air while he lay on the floor on his back. Louis groaned, desperately hoping that the ordeal was almost over.

Had he been able to scream properly, he would probably have been heard across the entire castle when the rock was smashed over and over again against his left kneecap. But Louis had no energy left, and was so far gone that all he could do was moan pathetically.

He knew it was over when his foot was released, and it fell limply to the ground. He could no longer understand words, but noted that someone was talking as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He tried opening his eyes, but couldn't find the strength or energy to complete the feat. He felt a numbness spread throughout his body that he welcomed. He knew he should try to stay conscious, to stay awake, as it was his best chance of remaining alive, but the not feeling was so much better than the pain that he let it in, and allowed himself to drift off into peaceful oblivion.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Louis awoke slowly. He drifted back and forth from awareness to numbness, sometimes able to hear muffled sounds, but unable to make out any of the words being said. He didn't know what had happened to him, or where he was. He couldn't feel much of anything, including his own body, and every time he got close to feeling something, it would become so overwhelming that he would pass out all over again.

When he finally came to, Louis had no idea how much time had passed, only that it had to have been significant, because he was no longer lying on the stone floor of the corridor.

The first thing he felt was someone holding his hand. The hand was soft – most likely female. It took awhile, and a considerable amount of effort, but he eventually managed to open his eyes to see that it was his sister, Victoire. And she was crying.

"Mmmmmm…" Louis tried to speak, but his mouth wouldn't cooperate.

Victoire's head immediately snapped up and Louis could see relief in her face as she saw that her brother was awake.

"Oh Louis, we've been so worried," she said emphatically. "What happened to you?"

"Unghhh…" Louis garbled.

Victoire patted his hand. "Never mind," she said. "You rest. We'll worry about the rest later."

Louis nodded his head and closed his eyes again. He was exhausted, and now that she mentioned it, rest sounded like a great idea.

LlLlLlLlLlL

It took a couple of days for Louis to gather enough strength to stay awake for extended periods of time. As it turned out, he had four broken ribs, a broken foot, a shattered kneecap, a broken nose, and a dislocated shoulder, in addition to all the bruises and scrapes and cuts. Had it only been a small selection of injuries, Madam Eldridge could have had him fixed up in no time. But with so many, she could only focus on one at a time.

The broken bones would be no problem, once Louis became strong enough to drink some skele-gro. The potion would speed up the mending and regrowth of bone and he would be walking again in no time. But Louis' body had been through so much, and the skele-gro was a painful potion, Madam Eldridge didn't want to administer it until he was feeling a bit better.

Justin wasn't much better off than Louis. He had a broken arm and leg, in addition to a few ribs. His nose had somehow remained intact, and his feet and knees had been left alone.

Louis' sisters and cousins were constant visitors to the hospital wing, as was Justin's sister. Louis' parents also came by the first afternoon to visit, only leaving after ensuring with Madam Eldridge that he was going to have a full recovery very soon.

The morning before Louis' skele-gro treatments were scheduled to begin, he was visited in the hospital wing by Headmaster Slinkhard.

"Headmaster!" Louis said in surprise, looking up from his astronomy textbook, which he'd had James fetch from his dorm the previous day.

The Headmaster glanced at Justin, who was asleep, and then took a seat in the chair by Louis' bed.

"Mr. Weasley," he greeted the injured boy. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good," Louis replied honestly. He tried to sit up a little straighter and winced when he exacerbated the pain in his knee.

"Don't try to move," Headmaster Slinkhard insisted, holding out a hand to stop him. "I know you've been through an ordeal."

"You can say that again," Louis nodded, groaning as he tried to return to a comfortable position.

"That's actually what I've come to talk to you about," the Headmaster said, getting to the point. "I need to know what happened."

"What happened?" Louis repeated, dumbly.

"To render yourself and Mr. Spinnet to this state," Headmaster Slinkhard clarified. "I assume someone did this to you. A student perhaps. I need to know who, so as to dole out the appropriate punishments. At this time, nobody has come forward, and there were no witnesses – at least none willing to speak out about the incident."

"Oh," Louis said, filled with a sudden panic.

If he named his attackers, it would only end badly for him. Flint and his crew had already made it clear that their mission was to make Louis' and Justin's lives miserable. And since they'd lost the fight, the Slytherins basically owned them now. If Louis turned them in, it would only make things worse in the long run.

"We did it to each other," he lied, glancing at Justin and then at the Headmaster.

The Headmaster frowned, looking between the two boys.

"Are you certain about that?" he asked.

Louis nodded. "Absolutely," he said.

The Headmaster seemed unconvinced.

"You mean for me to believe that the two of you fought so hard that you somehow rendered each other comatose at the same moment? That you delivered these blows to each other while receiving the same back?"

Louis knew it was a lame story, that nobody would believe it, but he was sticking to it. And when Justin awoke, he would warn his friend to stick to it too. It was better, to not get anyone else involved.

"Professor Derlid has been teaching us physical defence," Louis said. "We were practicing, and I guess it got out of hand."

"Mmmhmm," Headmaster Slinkhard murmured. "And you're sure you're not forgetting any important aspects of your story? Perhaps someone joined in this fight? A third person?"

Louis shook his head. "It was just the two of us," he insisted. "We must've been able to keep going because of the adrenaline. When you have a lot of adrenaline, you don't always feel the full extent of your injuries."

"Both your injuries and those of Mr. Spinnet are quite severe," Headmaster Slinkhard pointed out.

Louis nodded. "We got carried away," he said. He lowered his head, as if in shame, hoping to further make his point. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Headmaster Slinkhard pursed his lips, but didn't ask any more questions. He stood and looked once more at Justin.

"I'll be back later to speak with Mr. Spinnet," he declared. "I encourage you to think back to what happened. Maybe there's something else that you're not remembering from the incident. Should you recall anything else, please let me know."

Louis nodded, but knew he wouldn't be telling the Headmaster anything else. Exposing Flint and the others would get them detentions, letters home, house points lost for Slytherin. It would make them angry. And they would only end up taking their anger out on Louis and Justin, but possibly in more subtle ways. No. Louis couldn't tell. He would keep his head down, and stay out of Flint's way. If he was lucky, he'd get through the rest of this year without any more injuries, and then it was only another five before he could get out of this hellhole forever.


	18. April Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 18: April 2017

Louis and Justin were discharged from the hospital a week later. Neither had given up the identities of their attackers, much to their teachers' frustration. But it was better, safer this way.

Louis stopped by Professor Derlid's office right before he left for the Easter holidays to inform him that he and Justin would not be continuing with his training regimen once their recovery was fully complete. It just wasn't smart anymore. It was clear that Louis and Justin were never going to be as strong as even the weakest of the Slytherins, and continuing to train would send the wrong message. It was time to fall in line.

Professor Derlid was disappointed, tried to convince Louis not to give up, but Louis wasn't budging. It's why he'd come instead of Justin – because Justin would be more likely to cave, and neither boy wanted that.

The Slytherins gave the two boys a pretty wide berth for the first little while. Louis suspected it was precautionary – making sure that none of the teachers guessed that they'd been involved by staying away. It was smart. Louis just didn't know how long it was going to last.

The Easter holidays were a welcome vacation. Louis was quiet for most of the two weeks. He'd gone home to visit his family, and mostly stayed holed up in his room, working on his assignments and studying for his upcoming exams. He wouldn't even have come home that year, except that he just needed to get out of the castle.

Because every time he passed one of the Slytherins in the hall, he flinched. Every time he had to walk through that corridor, he found himself looking over his shoulder, afraid the Slytherins were about to corner him again. Every time he banged himself against a desk, or stubbed his toe, the little spike of pain that shot through him reminded him of the pain of lying on the ground and having the crap beat out of him. When he closed his eyes at night, he could see their faces. He could hear the screams, his own and Justin's, echoing around in his head.

But the Easter holidays weren't long enough, and all too soon, Louis was arriving back at the castle after much too short of a time away, and all the memories began to invade back in on him.

"I don't know if I can do this," Louis said nervously, as he and Justin walked into the Great Hall for dinner that night. "I don't know if I can be here."

"You have to be," Justin insisted. "You don't have a choice."

"I could be homeschooled," Louis suggested. "Or transferred. Beauxbatons would probably let me in. My mother has connections."

"You're not going to be homeschooled and you're not running off to Beauxbatons," Justin ordered. "You're staying right here. You're a Gryffindor. Where's your Gryffindor bravery?"

But Louis could hear the truth behind Justin's words. Justin needed Louis to stay at Hogwarts, the same as Louis knew the only reason, he could be there was that he had Justin. The two had been through everything together, and having each other to lean on was imperative to being able to carry on. If it weren't for Justin – Louis wasn't sure he'd have been able to get back on that return train.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Once they were back, it didn't take long for the Slytherins to put an end to their avoidance of the Gryffindors. It seemed that with the last bit of term underway, academic needs outweighed the need to keep a low profile. Louis and Justin were in the library when they came. Flint didn't need to say much. He just dropped a pile of assignments on the desk in front of them, gave them a deadline, and walked away. There was no need to say much else. His point was clear. And the terms of the deal had been clear. If Louis and Justin lost the fight, the Slytherins owned them. And they most certainly had lost the fight.

Louis sighed, reaching for the pile of assignments first and sifting through them with reluctance. He noted that there were assignments from four different courses, and he split them up evenly between him and Justin so that each would only have to focus on two of the four subjects.

He had to look on the bright side. At least they were back to doing the Slytherin's homework for them, and not being beaten up in hallways. Louis would gladly do all five boys' homework alone for the rest of eternity than end up in that hospital bed again. If this was his life for the next five years, he would resign himself to it. And then one day, he'd be free of this prison.

Justin wasn't so calm.

"They can't expect us to get all this done in so little time!" Justin cried, gesturing to all the assignments. "This is like, all our homework from today. No, I won't do it. They can't make me."

"They can, and they have," Louis sighed. He didn't have the energy to fight with Justin over this. And Louis didn't have the ability to complete all the homework himself. "Just leave it alone and accept that this is our life now. We do what they say, and we stay out of trouble."

Justin didn't want to give in, but eventually he did. Louis was right, after all. Justin knew that. He just didn't like it.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Mid-way through the next week, Louis and Justin received a summons to the Headmaster's office. Worried and concerned, the boys wondered if they should go. If Flint and the others found out, they might think they were going to turn them in, and they wouldn't like that. But if they didn't go, Headmaster Slinkhard would not be impressed, and they couldn't have that either.

They arrived in the Headmaster's office to find that Professor Longbottom was there as well. They were invited to take seats across the desk from the Headmaster, while their Head of House sat in a chair to the side, facing them, but not really behind the desk either.

"What's going on?" Louis asked nervously.

Headmaster Slinkhard cleared his throat. "In the wake of your… incident… I've been having Professor Longbottom keep a closer eye on you both. He tells me he's noticed some unusual behavior recently."

"Unusual behavior?' Louis frowned. He shook his head. "Nope, everything's normal with us."

"At first I didn't realize anything was happening," Professor Longbottom said, "because it was different people each day. But since we've been back from holidays, I've noticed a pattern. At about the same time every day, the two of you will be in the library, and someone – not always the same person, but always someone from one particular house – comes up to you, hands you a pile of parchment, and you give him a different pile of parchment in exchange."

Louis shifted uncomfortably but didn't say anything. He hoped to Merlin that Justin would have the common sense to stay quiet as well.

"Professor Longbottom thinks – and I agree – that you're being exploited by some of your classmates. Perhaps the same classmates who were involved in landing the both of you in the hospital wing?" Headmaster Slinkhard said.

Louis shook his head. "I told you already," he insisted. "We put each other in the hospital wing. We were fighting, and it got out of hand. Nobody else was involved."

Headmaster Slinkhard did not look convinced, but Louis didn't care. As long as he stuck to his story, nobody could prove he was lying.

"And we're not being exploited by anyone," Justin added. "We have an arrangement with some of our classmates to exchange notes every now and then, for studying purposes. It's always better to study off multiple sets of notes, because other people might have written things down that you missed when you wrote your own notes."

Louis had to admit, it was a really good cover story. One that neither Professor could dispute, because again, they had no proof that anything was amiss. And Louis and Justin had become extremely skilled at hiding the fact that in almost all their classes now, the two of them were completing assignments for seven.

Headmaster Slinkhard lowered his head and peered over the tops of his glasses at the two boys, not seeming convinced at all. Louis maintained a straight face, and avoided eye contact with Professor Longbottom, knowing it would be harder to hide the truth from his herbology Professor if things boiled down to it.

"Very well," Headmaster Slinkhard sighed. "If you insist on going about things like this, we will oblige. But remember that you can come to us if there ever is anything you feel we should know."

"Understood," Louis nodded. "Thank you."

LlLlLlLlLlL

As the days went by, it became harder and harder for Louis to get out of bed in the morning. He just didn't have the motivation. Neither he nor Justin had been to an astronomy club meeting in weeks, because they spent all their time working on assignment after assignment. They couldn't study with anyone else, because they couldn't risk anyone noticing that they were completing their assignments multiple times over, so the two were becoming even more and more isolated from the rest of the school than before.

During the week, Justin could convince Louis to get up, by reminding him that doing the Slytherins' homework would only be more difficult if he didn't attend the lectures to learn the material. But on the weekends, Louis sometimes stayed in bed until the afternoon, just not having the energy or the motivation to do anything, knowing that all that was ever waiting for him was more of the same.

The castle had become an unfriendly place. Everywhere Louis went, it seemed that the Slytherins were there, giving them more work to complete, reminding them what would happen if they slacked on it at all, terrifying the boys into submission. The only place that was safe was Gryffindor Tower. But the common room was filled with well meaning sisters and cousins who were constantly pestering Louis about why he was so sad, and why he was always working and never having fun. Which left the dorm as the only place Louis could ever find any peace. So why would he ever leave it?

And there was something that nagged at Louis, day in and day out. Because everywhere he went, he was miserable. But everyone around him was having the time of their lives. Sure, lots were stressed out, because it was the end of term and exams were coming up. And sure, sometimes he came across someone who was sad, or crying in the bathroom. But for the most part, the students of Hogwarts were happy. They had their friends, their activities, they had their fun and did things that they enjoyed. People walked around Hogwarts with smiles on their faces.

Why couldn't Louis be like everyone else? Why couldn't he have fun? Why couldn't he be carefree, worrying only about his exam results and pressure to succeed, and all those other normal things that everyone else worried about? He was only thirteen years old, and he walked around the school like he feared for his life. And some days, he did. He'd get a sidelong glance from Flint, or see Darian Reed flexing his muscles menacingly, and he'd grow cold. When Alec Roper was around, it was all Louis could do not to freeze up and completely stop functioning.

Every waking moment, he was scared. Everywhere he went, he was on edge. The sight of his own shadow sometimes terrified him half to death. It wasn't healthy. And Louis knew he couldn't go on like this. Somehow, some way, something had to change.

LlLlLlLlLlL

Louis was in the library. He was alone, because Justin had gotten held up by Professor Tonks after transfiguration class, and he was extra jumpy.

He was working on a potions assignment for Arthur Pritchard when someone slid into the chair next to him. Louis looked over and practically had a heart attack right there when he saw who it was. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then steeled himself for what was to come.

"Alec," he greeted the Slytherin boy that had attacked him.

While technically, all five of the Slytherin boys had been involved, it was more personal with Alec, because he'd been the one Louis had been fighting. Alec had been the one to render Louis unable to move. The rest that had come after, he'd been too fuzzy to remember clearly.

"Louis," Alec returned the greeting. "I was hoping I could talk to you for a second."

"Is it about those charms essays?" Louis asked, worried. He'd known they weren't all at his usual standard, but there were only so many things he could say about fire-related charms. "I swear, I did the best I could. I didn't get a great mark on mine either, and I made sure the one I submitted under my name was the worst of them."

Alec shook his head. "No, it's not about the charms essays," he said.

"Oh," Louis said, trying to think what else it could be. "Is it about the defence assignment? Because we told you all you'd have to answer that last question yourselves. It was a personal question, and Justin and I don't know you well enough to be able to fake an answer."

"No, no, it's not about school work at all," Alec insisted.

"Oh," Louis replied, feeling a pit form in his stomach. If it wasn't about schoolwork, then it could only be bad. And Alec had clearly chosen a time when Justin was nowhere to be found. That didn't bode well for Louis. The only positive thing was that they were in the library, and while they weren't sitting in the most public of areas, there were still people around, and Madam Maxwell could walk around the corner at any moment. Louis didn't think Alec would try anything violent in here. At least he hoped not.

"I wanted to talk to you because – well I wanted to apologize," Alec said, staring somewhere above Louis' forehead instead of directly at him.

It took Louis a minute to register the words, and another minute to accept that he hadn't misheard. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I wanted to apologize," Alec said. "For what I did to you."

"I don't understand," Louis confessed. This was so completely out of the blue. What had brought this on? Why was Alec coming to him now? Why was he coming to him at all?

Alec sighed. "I got sorted into Slytherin," he said, as if this were an explanation. "When you're in Slytherin, connections are important."

Louis gave Alec a puzzled look as he tried to understand the relevance of this statement.

"My dormmates aren't exactly the kind of people I would normally be friends with, but they're who I've got. I can either be one of them, or I can be against them. So, I chose to be one of them, to be friends with Flint and the rest. And most of the time, they're alright guys."

"I still don't see what this has to do with – " Louis was interrupted as Alec continued.

"I never liked the way they used you and Justin like homework slaves," he said. "But I couldn't say anything. Flint's the leader, and in Slytherin that means something too. You don't cross the leader. And when it was just getting you to do our homework, I figured it wasn't so bad."

Louis nodded, letting Alec finish before saying anything more.

"When Flint started with the violence, I told myself that as long as I didn't directly involve myself, I wasn't really responsible. I would hang back, let it happen, stay quiet, and pretend like it wasn't real. But then you picked me to fight against. And I knew that if I didn't do what Flint wanted, I'd have ended up in the hospital wing with you and Justin. So I did what I had to do."

"And now you want forgiveness?" Louis asked, his stomach turning unpleasantly. How could Alec think it was okay, to come to Louis, tell him these things, and expect Louis to just be okay with it?

Alec shrugged. "I just wanted you to know I'm not like them," he said. "They don't feel bad for what they did to you. But I do. I feel bad."

"That doesn't really mean all that much, to be honest," Louis replied. "Feeling bad means squat if you're still going to do the bad thing."

"I just – " Alec looked pained, but Louis wasn't about to offer the boy any kind of relief. He'd hurt Louis. Big time. And if he was hurting now, even just a little bit, then Louis decided that he deserved it. "I just wanted you to know that I'm different."

Alec got up then to leave, and Louis knew that this was his last chance to say something that might have any kind of an impact on Alec. Once he was back with the Slytherins, Louis could never reference this conversation again. If he did, he knew it would end one of two ways. Alec refuting the whole thing and Louis being beaten up again, or Alec confirming the whole thing and the both of them being beaten up. Either way, Louis ended up hurt.

"Different maybe," Louis muttered, loud enough that the Slytherin would hear him. "But not better."

When Justin arrived a few minutes later, Louis didn't mention anything about Alec's apology. It was clear from the conversation that it was meant for Louis and Louis alone. And it meant nothing anyway, if Alec was going to continue following Flint, which from the way he'd been defending his actions, it sounded like he would.

Louis wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing. He didn't feel better. He didn't suddenly feel any safer. In fact, he might even have felt less safe, knowing that Flint's influence was so powerful. And it didn't change anything either. Louis and Justin were still stuck doing all the Slytherins' homework, and if they refused, the threat of physical violence was still there. Even if Alec refused to participate, there were four other very strong boys who could do some real damage if it came down to it.

No, Louis decided. Alec's apology meant nothing, and he intended to just forget about it. Alec had been trying to make himself feel better, not Louis. Which made him just like all the other bullies. He didn't care about Louis or Justin's wellbeing. He cared about himself. And Louis wasn't going to do anything to make him feel better about being a terrible person.


	19. May Year 2

_Year 2: Show Some Strength_

Chapter 19: May 2017

With the arrival of May, Louis no longer had time to feel sorry for himself. There was too much to do. Exams were coming, and Louis needed to revise all his subjects for himself, not to mention the parchment full of questions the Slytherins provided him and Justin with for each of their classes just like last year. Louis did his best not to mind about the extra work Flint and the others were piling on. It was just an extra, albeit unusual way, of studying.

Justin did not feel the same way. Over the past two months, Justin had become very bitter, very irritable, and very irate. He hated the Slytherins with a passion and spent every waking minute cursing them.

"Some day, I'm going to learn how to perform a real curse, and I'm going to put one on each and every one of them. They're going to pay for what they've done to us," he insisted.

"Just let it go," Louis sighed. All the fight had long since left Louis. It took too much energy to fight and Louis just didn't have the energy anymore. "We'll be out of this place soon enough."

"Five more years isn't soon enough," Justin grumbled.

Day after day, Justin would run through all sorts of possible curses he might put on the Slytherins. He wasn't going for one big terrible moment, but rather for a lifetime of annoyance. He wanted to punish the Slytherins for a long time.

"What about a curse so that for the rest of time, there's always a pebble in one of their shoes?" Justin suggested.

"Do you know how to do that?" Louis asked, exhausted at listening to Justin and his crazy curse ideas.

"Not yet," Justin replied. "But as soon as I get ahead of all this homework, I'm going to start researching curses in the library."

"Sure," Louis nodded, going along with things. "Whatever you say."

But Louis knew that that day would never come. They'd never get ahead of the homework. The minute they did, more got piled on. Louis only hoped that come summer, he'd finally make some time to sleep.

"Or what about a curse so that for the rest of their lives, they always hear a little hum somewhere off in the distance, but they can never find the source," Justin suggested.

"Oh yes," Louis said in a dead voice. "You've really got them now."

"Or a curse that makes it so that there's always a black spot in their vision, not directly ahead, but in the peripheral, so they're always trying to figure out what it is, but it never goes away," Justin made another suggestion.

"Look, I really don't care," Louis sighed. "Whatever you do, it's not going to change our current situation, so it really doesn't matter to me."

"Hey! I'm doing this for the both of us," Justin insisted. "You could show a little bit of appreciation."

"Forgive me if I don't seem more enthusiastic," Louis said sarcastically, "but I'm a little worn out these days."

"So am I," Justin cried. "But I'm still trying. You've just given up."

"I haven't given up," Louis protested. "I'm choosing my battles. And right now, fighting this battle with you is just not worth the payout."

"Anything to bring those bastards down a peg or two is worth the payout in my opinion," Justin declared, grumpy that his friend wasn't afire with revenge plans like he was.

"And if they discover that it was you that cursed them?" Louis asked. "What then?"

Justin shrugged. "They won't find out. It takes way more skill than any of them have to trace a curse. Not to mention they'd have to realize they were cursed first, and I'm not convinced they're that bright."

"Don't underestimate them," Louis insisted. "Just because we do all their homework does not mean that they're dunces."

"Really?" Justin frowned. "You're telling me you think Darian Reed is intelligent enough to realize that he's been cursed?"

Louis shrugged. "Maybe not Reed, but Pritchard definitely would be. And if they're all experiencing the same thing, they'll realize it's all interrelated. And once they realize that it's just the five of them that were specifically targeted, it's not going to take long to trace back to us."

"You worry too much," Justin insisted. "They won't figure it out."

"You don't worry enough," Louis countered. "And I don't fancy ending up in the hospital wing again. So leave me out of it."

"Fine," Justin agreed. "I'll do it on my own."

"I'm just glad you're likely years away from being able to perform a curse at all," Louis muttered quietly to himself.

"What's that?" Justin asked.

"Oh nothing," Louis shook his head. "Come on, let's get these potions essays over with."

LlLlLlLlLlL

As the days wore on, Louis' energy only continued to diminish. He had so much work to do, and Justin was no help, as he kept trying to imagine creative ways to torture the Slytherins, leaving Louis with more than his fair share of their extra work. So when Louis headed upstairs to his dorm one Wednesday night, weary, worn out, and ready to collapse, the last thing he needed was his three other dormmates waiting for he and Justin angrily.

"There he is!" Philip cried, pointing a finger at Louis.

"What's going on?" Louis frowned, taking in the scene around him. The dorm was a mess. The contents of all five of their trunks had been strewn about, the beds had all been unmade, and soggy parchment littered the entire room.

"You really have to ask?" Randall practically spat.

"Where's Justin?" Russel demanded. "He should be here for this."

Nervously, Louis took a step back. He didn't like the looks on his dormmates' faces. They were clearly angry – angrier than he'd ever seen them. Louis had enough people angry with him in Slytherin house. He didn't need it from his own dorm too.

"He's just downstairs finishing up some homework," Louis replied.

But at that moment, Justin appeared in the doorway, stopping in his tracks when he saw the scene that was unfolding.

"No, I'm right here," Justin replied nervously. "What's going on up here?"

"What's going on is you lied to us!" Randall cried.

"Lied?" Justin asked, bewildered. "Lied about what?"

"That toad of yours," Philip explained. "You said you set him free, but obviously you've been hiding him somewhere. And now he's gotten out and ruined all our notes."

Philip brandished a handful of soggy parchment in Louis' and Justin's faces.

"These were all my notes for the entire year for herbology. What am I supposed to do now? Exams are in a couple of weeks!"

At this, Louis startled and took a step forward. It had been one thing for their dormmates to be mad about Toby back when Justin had been letting him roam free in the dorm. But Justin had let Toby go into the lake. Louis had watched it happen. He wasn't going to let their dormmates blame this all on them.

"Look, I don't know what happened here, but it has nothing to do with Justin's toad," Louis said, surprising himself with his confidence. "You can't go jumping to conclusions like this."

"This isn't us jumping to conclusions," Philip declared, walking over to his bed and gesturing to his bedside table drawer. "Why don't you take a look inside here before you try taking the high road here?"

Frowning at Justin, Louis walked forward, his best friend close behind him. They walked up to Philip's bedside table and carefully, Louis pulled the drawer open.

Almost immediately, a toad launched itself out of the drawer and landed right on Justin's face. Justin screamed in surprise and fell over as the toad hopped from Justin onto Philip's bed, and then continued to jump from bed to bed, leaving behind little wet patches wherever he went.

"Is that… is that Toby?" Louis frowned, recognizing the toad's features.

Justin frowned. "It certainly looks like Toby."

As if to confirm his statement, the toad hopped back over to Justin and settled on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck.

"The toad seems awfully friendly with you," Russel pointed out.

"But how did he get back in here?" Louis frowned.

"Stop playing games with us!" Randall roared. "You never let the toad go free, and now he's ruined all our notes. We're all going to fail and it's all your fault."

Though the toad was Justin's, it was clear that all three of their dormmates blamed both Justin and Louis for Toby's misdeeds.

Having had quite enough of the unfair treatment, Louis stomped over to the boys' trunks and began to produce piles of notes that were completely unharmed.

"What do you call all of this then?" he demanded. "Seems to me that Toby only damaged a few pages each. Figure out what you're missing and then share your notes with each other to fill in the blanks. It's not the end of the world!"

"You're missing the point!" Russel cried. "The point is that this shouldn't have happened in the first place. If you'd gotten rid of the toad when you said you were going to – "

"First of all, Justin did set Toby free," Louis insisted. "Obviously Toby found his way back to him, and you can hardly fault him for that."

Justin sent Louis a grateful look, which Louis ignored.

"Second of all," Louis continued, "sometimes things happen in life that aren't exactly in line with your own vision. But when things happen, we deal with it. We don't start accusing our friends, or yell, or scream. It's _a few pages of notes_. You'll be fine. So quit whining and pull yourselves together."

Nobody said anything when Louis finished. Russel, Randall, and Philip simply stared at Louis in surprise. It was the first speech Louis had made like that, and quite honestly, none of the boys would have expected it from him.

"Look fine, whatever," Randall finally muttered, passive aggressively. "Just don't let it happen again, okay?"

And with that, the three boys filed past Louis and Justin towards the door and disappeared through it, probably to go down to the common room to talk about Louis' outburst.

"Hey man," Justin said, finally getting up from the floor. "Thanks for that."

Clenching his teeth and refusing to make eye contact, Louis stalked over to his own bed and began to pull the curtains closed to privacy.

"Get a damn cage for that thing if you're going to keep it," he ordered, before pulling the final curtain closed.

It wasn't fair of him to be angry with Justin, but he was. It wasn't because of the toad; the toad had only exacerbated everything from the past weeks and months. Louis was tired of having to always pick up Justin's slack on their extra Slytherin homework. He was tired of looking out for Justin, tired of listening to Justin's big plans, tired of dealing with the fallout of Justin's words and actions.

Louis was simply to the bone exhausted. And he didn't think any amount of rest was going to improve things.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The next morning, Justin avoided Louis all through breakfast, even going so far as to sit on the other end of the table in the Great Hall. In transfiguration class, Justin took a seat far from where the two usually sat, which resulted in Louis having to sit next to Anne Miller from Hufflepuff.

By lunchtime, Louis felt wretched. It wasn't fair to take this all out on Justin. Justin hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't as though he could have predicted that Toby would return, or that he would create such a conflict with their roommates. And it wasn't fair to blame Justin for everything that had happened with the Slytherins. If there was anyone to blame, it was Flint. And Louis shouldn't get mad at Justin when he'd start thinking up ways to get back at the boys in green. It was simply Justin's way of dealing with the stress.

"Hey," Louis said, approaching Justin in the Great Hall. "Is that a pet supply catalogue?"

Justin shrugged. "Well if Toby's just going to keep coming back, then I should buy the proper equipment."

"I didn't mean what I said yesterday," Louis said, feeling badly. If Justin was only doing this because of his comment –

"No, you were right," Justin insisted. "Toby needs a cage. He can't be allowed to roam free in a shared dorm space. It's not fair to anybody."

"I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday," Louis said, sitting down. "I've just been under a lot of stress, and the whole thing with Toby kind of pushed me over the edge."

"Hey, we're both under a lot of stress," Justin reminded Louis. "But we can't turn on each other. Not now."

"You're right," Louis agreed. "We're in this together."

"That we are," Justin agreed. "And you know what? I doesn't just have to be the two of us either."

"What do you mean?" Louis frowned. He certainly wasn't about to try reporting the Slytherins to anyone. He knew that wouldn't end well.

"The astronomy club," Justin declared. "They're our friends. We haven't seen any of them in ages. I bet even just going to a club meeting would do wonders."

"You're right," Louis realized. Just because they couldn't tell anyone at the Astronomy Club about what they were going through didn't mean they couldn't help. "We should go today.

LlLlLlLlLlL

That afternoon, as soon as classes were finished, Louis and Justin made their way up to the seventh floor, where the Astronomy Club met. For some reason, Louis found himself a little nervous as they came to the door and prepared to go in. It had been so long since they'd last attended. Would their friends be mad that they'd abandoned them all year?

It turned out Louis' fears were unfounded. As soon as he and Justin walked inside, they were immediately greeted by a vey excited Ben, and a very enthusiastic Trent.

"Louis! Justin!" Ben cried, hurrying over to give each boy a quick hug. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Louis said, hanging his head guiltily.

"No need to apologize!" Trent assured him, ushering them both inside. "Come on, check this out, it's so cool."

At the front of the room was the longest roll of parchment Louis had ever seen, covered with some of the most interesting information. It was the celestial mapping project the club had been working on all year. Louis and Justin had been away for so long, they hadn't gotten a chance to see it put together yet.

"This is so cool!" Louis exclaimed, bending over it and taking it all in. Though he was disappointed that he hadn't contributed more to it, he was excited to get to see it up close like this.

"And you're just in time to help with the finishing touches!" Trent said excitedly.

"Oh, we couldn't," Justin said, shaking his head. "This is your project, not ours. We barely did anything. It should be you guys who finish it off."

"Nonsense," Trent said, waving his hand in the air. "You're as much a part of this club as anyone else. Just because you've been away doesn't make you any less of a member. We want your help, if you're offering it."

"Well I'm game," Louis smiled happily. He wanted his name on the project, even if it was the last name listed.

"Same here," Justin grinned.

As the rest of the club members started arriving, Louis and Justin became enveloped in a bubble of animated 'welcome backs' and fervent 'we've missed yous'. It was nice.

Though there was still a ton of work waiting for the boys when they got back to the common room, for now they could just sit and enjoy being with friends.


End file.
